If you've seen The Batman, you'll know that Barry Keoghan is not playing Officer Stanley Merkel! Spoilers ahead.
The Eternals actor shows up near the end of the movie as an "Unnamed Arkham Prisoner" who converses with The Riddler (Paul Dano), but it soon becomes clear that he's supposed to be The Joker - or at least, the villain who will eventually become The Clown Prince of Crime.
Keoghan spoke about joining the cast and working with director Matt Reeves during an interview with Esquire Middle East, but he doesn't seem to be ready to discuss his role just yet!
"[Dano’s] brilliant, man. And Matt Reeves and [producer] Dylan Clark especially were amazing to me – really, really amazing to me," Keoghan said. "Getting to be part of the Batman universe is [a huge deal for me]. I’m a fanboy of these movies, and especially the Batman universe. So to be in that world, I’m still pinching myself."
"I can’t really go into that," he added when asked about the inspiration for his character. "All I can say it was a Joy to work with Matt and Dylan Clark on that movie. That’s all."
Reeves has already confirmed that Keoghan is playing The Joker, but the cast has clearly been asked to keep mum for the time being. The director also revealed that he ended up cutting a scene which would have seen The Dark Knight (Robert Pattinson) pay a visit to his soon-to-be arch nemesis to pick his brain about The Riddler, but Keoghan says he hasn't seen this moment himself.
There's a lot of speculation that Keoghan will return for the inevitable The Batman 2, but Reeves stressed that the Joker scene wasn't necessarily setting anything up for a sequel in a recent interview. Could he be part of the planned Arkham-centric HBO Max series instead, perhaps?
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Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.