The Joker, as was widely speculated prior to The Batman's release, was brought to maddening life by none other than Barry Keoghan, who previously starred in Marvel's Eternals. Now, you'd think that the Joker's inclusion at the end of the film would suggest that Pattinson will square off against Keoghan in The Batman 2. Not so fast. “It’s not an Easter egg scene,” Reeves said. “It’s not one of those end credits Marvel or DC scenes where it’s going, like, ‘Hey, here’s the next movie!’ In fact, I have no idea when or if we would return to that character in the movies.”
Now, Reeves has been teasing a potential HBO Max series that would focus solely on the villains of Arkham Asylum, which he teased in the Variety interview. "There are things we’ve talked about there," he said. "So it’s very possible. It also isn’t impossible, that there is some story that comes back where Joker comes into our world.”
For now, it seems like we're meant to enjoy Keoghan's Joker cameo for what it was: a cameo. Even though Reeves brushes away the idea of the Joker's return being a sure thing, it's likely that we'll see him again in either The Batman's sequel or an HBO Max spinoff. Plus, we'd like to see more of Paul Dano's Riddler, finally out from under his (quite literally) Saran-wrapped mask. If his reintroduction is alongside the Joker? All the better.
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