Irish actor Cillian Murphy has nothing but praise for fellow Irishman, Barry Keoghan and he's particularly excited to see his role as the Joker expanded upon in Matt Reeves' follow-up to The Batman.
"I did of course, he was amazing," said Murphy on Keoghan brief turn as the Joker in The Batman. "I can't wait to see him get a bit more screen time...He's phenomenal. He's proven his range and versatility. And he's such a gorgeous kid, he's probably not a kid- he's a father now. I haven't seen him in a while but I'm so proud of [The Banshees of Inisherin] and what they achieved. He's a great, great actor."
Keoghan and Murphy previously collaborated on Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk (2017) and Yorgos Lanthimos' The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017).
Last year, Keoghan picked up the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role as well as Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for his role as Colm Doherty in Banshees of Inisherin.
Although Joker's silhouette only appeared in The Batman, fans are hopeful to see this fresh, new take on Gotham's Clown Prince of Crime in The Batman 2.
However, Reeves previously warned fans that Joker's brief appearance in the film wasn't an indication that he'll be the main villain in the sequel.
"I never was trying to say like, ‘Hey, guess what, here’s the Joker. Next movie!' The idea was more to say, ‘Hey, look, if you think that trouble is going to go away in Gotham, you can forget it. It’s already here. And it’s already delicious.'"
"It’s not about some version where he falls into a vat of chemicals and his face is distorted, or what [Christopher] Nolan did, where there’s some mystery to how he got these scars carved into his face,” Reeves explained. “What if this guy from birth had this disease and he was cursed? He had this smile that people stared at that was grotesque and terrifying. Even as a child, people looked at him with horror, and his response was to say, ‘Okay, so a joke was played on me,’ and this was his nihilistic take on the world."
Still, now that the Joker has been unveiled in Reeves' Batman, one has to think we'll be seeing a lot more of him in the sequel. At the very least, Cillian Murphy is hopeful that's the case.