Matt Reeves, the director of The Batman, released a deleted scene from the superhero saga on Thursday, where Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader faces off against his classic nemesis, the Joker, played by Barry Keoghan. The scene would become available after visiting a website that mimics the word puzzles created by the Riddler (Paul Dano) in the movie.
As Reeves explained in an interview in February, the scene follows Batman discovering that the Riddler killed the Gotham City police commissioner and left behind one of his cryptic notes addressed to Batman. Disturbed by the Riddler’s interest in him, Batman decides to figure out what drives the Riddler. “I thought he’d be really insecure about it, and he’ll probably want to find a way to get inside the Riddler’s mind like in ‘Manhunter’ or ‘Mindhunter’,” Reeves said. This is the idea of profiling someone so you can guess their personality. That was the next move.”
The director liked the idea to suggest to the audience that Gotham is full of villains right on the edge of its story and that Keoghan’s Joker is one of the first enemies Batman captures. “You realize they had an affair and this guy was clearly doing something and Batman somehow got him into Arkham,” Reeves said. said. In the scene, Batman challenges the Joker about what the Riddler did and why he left Batman notes about all of his crimes. “Maybe he’s your fan? Or maybe he’s holding a grudge against you too. Maybe you’re the main dish.” says.
The scene where the Joker taunts Batman mocks the jarring truth in it that Riddler was a part of him who participated in his decision to impeach the corrupt Gotham leaders. The Joker chuckled, “I think deep down you’re just scared because you’re not sure he’s wrong.” says. Reeves had previously explained why he deleted this scene, with the Joker and Riddler bonding in adjacent cells at Arkham Hospital. Now the scene has been released.