Barry Keoghan made his debut as the Dark Knight's most iconic foe in The Batman, showing up near the end of the movie as an "Unnamed Arkham Prisoner" who converses with The Riddler (Paul Dano). It soon became clear that this disfigured criminal was supposed to be The Joker - or at least, the man who will eventually become The Joker.
Director Matt Reeves later shared a deleted scene featuring Keoghan's villain speaking to the Caped Crusader (Robert Pattinson), but the filmmaker has said that this shouldn't be taken as an indication that Joker is being lined up as the main antagonist of his sequel.
Keoghan has always stayed pretty tight-lipped about his potential return, but we may finally have some idea of what Warner Bros. and Reeves have planned for this latest big-screen take on the Clown Prince of Crime.
According to the Marvelvision podcast (via World of Reel), Keoghan is set to return as the Joker - but not in The Batman Part II (though a cameo is a possibility). The Eternals actor will reportedly reprise his role as the main villain in The Batman Part III, and his also in talks to headline his own HBO/Max Joker spin-off series that would lead into the final part of Reeves' trilogy.
Jeff Sneider has also heard that there are "big plans" for Keoghan's Joker, and believes a solo series in the same vein as The Penguin is highly likely.
As for The Batman Part II, Reeves recently shared the first official plot details during an interview with SFX Magazine, confirming that the movie will once again feature Batman investigating a mystery (not exactly a massive surprise).
"We've shared [the script] as we've been going along with DC, and they're super excited," he told the mag. "It's going to dig into the epic story about deeper corruption and it goes into places [Bruce Wayne] couldn't even anticipate in the first one.
The seeds of where this goes are all in the first movie & it expands in a way that will show you aspects of the character you never got to see. Batman is constantly battling these forces. But those forces can’t be entirely exorcised. So the next movie delves deeper into that. "
This had led to speculation that Batman will be facing The Court of Owls, but it's probably going to be a while before we find out for sure.
There are other possibilities for the sequel's main antagonist(s), of course, but when it comes to certain villains the Caped Crusader may or may not be going up against, Reeves did indicate that certain "fantastical" characters - including the likes of Gentleman Ghost - are off the table.
"What was important to me was to find a way to take these pop icons, these mythic characters that everybody knows, and translate it so that Gotham feels like a place in our world," he added. "We might push to the edge of fantastical, but we would never go into full fantastical. It's meant to feel quite grounded.
It doesn’t mean that you won’t see characters that people love. That’s exactly what we want to do. Gentleman Ghost is probably pushed a bit too far for us to be able to find a way to do, but there is a fun way to think about how we would take characters that might push over into a bit of the fantastical and find a way to make sense of that.”
Co-writer Mattson Tomlin recently confirmed reports that cameras are set to begin rolling in 2025.
"It's shooting next year. We're gearing up, and I will say that the bar just couldn't be higher," Tomlin told ScreenRant.
"It's the sequel to the first one," he continued. "But also, Matt [Reeves] is like no other. In the five years now that I've been working with him as closely as I have, I've tried to absorb as much as humanly possible from him, and I'm so grateful for the time that I get to spend with him, because he is a true artist who is operating in a world where sometimes art doesn't get to flourish, and he's trying to make something that really matters. So to be able to just be on the ride and be part of that process, it's pretty unbelievable, pretty tremendous. I'm psyched for the movie."