Marketing for The Batman has revealed several details about the upcoming feature film, though none of them provide any real indication of who actor Barry Keoghan plays. It was recently reported that a deleted scene changes that, revealing the actor's mystery character.
In an interview with Tech Radar, director Matt Reeves revealed, "There were scenes we cut that I liked. In fact, there's a scene with the unseen prisoner (Keoghan), who appears at the end of the movie in Arkham [Asylum] with the Riddler. There was an earlier scene where Batman went to Arkham to try to profile the Riddler, and Barry is in that scene. It's a very cool scene, and I'm sure we'll we'll release the scene after the movie comes out, because it's a really cool deleted scene."
Keoghan was reported to have joined the cast as far back as 2020 as Gotham City Police Department officer Stanley Merkel. However, it was later suggested by a now-deleted tweet from Keoghan's brother, that the Eternals star would play the Joker. He wrote, "So it's finally out My Brother playing the JOKER in the new Batman Unreal Stuff." Despite the fact that this was not officially confirmed by Warner Bros., Keoghan or Reeves, fans responded positively, expressing support for the casting choice.
The Batman follows the titular superhero in his second year as a vigilante. While it's uncertain whether the iconic Joker will make an appearance, it has been well-established that supervillains including the Riddler, Penguin and Catwoman will feature in the film. It's uncertain how large of a role Penguin will play, but it is known that Riddler and Catwoman are both integral to the plot and to the Dark Knight's character arc, with both being described as heavily involved in Bruce Wayne's private life.
But Wayne is not the focus of The Batman. Reeves has explained in the past that with this film, he sought to explore the Batman, rather than Wayne, who has been well-explored in previous films. In a press event, he explained, "A lot of times, once he's already Batman, he no longer has the arc, per se. You might have rogues' gallery characters who come in, and in a way, they have the grand story, and then Batman is going to battle them in some way."
The Batman is scheduled to hit theaters on March 4.
Source: Tech Radar