As The Batman’s ending was unfolding, viewers saw the incarcerated Riddler hit it off with another inmate at Arkham, who was identified as this universe’s Joker. Days later, a deleted scene giving us significant screen time with Barry Keoghan’s Joker was released, and now the world awaits what’s next for this take on the Clown Prince of Crime. While that information is officially locked up tighter than Bruce Wayne’s armory in the Batcave, unofficially, there’s a rumor sharing that Keoghan’s Joker is going to factor into multiple upcoming Batman movies and TV shows.
First shared by the Marvelvision podcast, and then confirmed by Slashfilm, Warner Bros. Pictures is allegedly formulating plans to spotlight The Batman’s version of The Joker in multiple projects. While what we know about The Batman: Part II doesn’t include if Barry Keoghan will be present yet, the rumor states that Joker will be The Batman: Part III’s main villain. Additionally, there’s also talk of making a “Joker-oriented series” set between Part II and Part III in the same vein as The Penguin, which has been airing on HBO and can be streamed with a Max subscription. That said, it was then clarified that this could be either a series where Joker is the main protagonist or just “a series the Joker is in.”
Assuming all this information is accurate, then clearly big things are in store for The Joker in the Batman Epic Crime Saga, even if the finer details haven’t been worked out yet. Considering how critically successful The Penguin has been, along with The Joker being Batman’s most well-known adversary, I would be shocked if a TV series involving Barry Keoghan’s Joker didn’t move forward. The trick there, however, is if it’s possible to depict the character in a sympathetic light. It’s one thing to do that with Oz Cobb (although that reveal from the The Penguin’s penultimate episode make it even harder to sympathize with him), but another thing to do it with Joker, who is often depicted as pure evil.
The Batman began two years after Robert Pattinson's Bruce Wayne started beating up criminals as a costume vigilante, and at some point during those early outings, he crossed paths with The Joker, as they were already familiar with each other in the aforementioned deleted scene. Whatever his crimes were, Barry Keoghan’s take on the character is clearly a bad seed. So keeping that in mind, it might be wiser to approach a Joker series by having him fill the lead antagonist role comfortable and use someone else as the “protagonist.”
Whether or not that happens, I like the idea of saving Joker as The Batman: Part III’s main villain. This doesn’t mean he couldn’t still appear in Part II, but considering how many other live-action interpretations of the character we’ve gotten over the last decade, plus how there are various other Batman villains who deserve time to shine in a movie, it’s best to save him as a treat of delayed gratification.That’s assuming, of course, that Part III ends up being greenlit someday, although it’s probably safe to say the odds of that happening are stronger than not.
For now, The Penguin will conclude its eight-episode first season (maybe Season 2 is in the cards after all) this Sunday on HBO. The Batman: Part II is due out in theaters October 2, 2026.
