His scene may have been cut, but Barry Keoghan had been cast as the Joker for Matt Reeves’ new Batman universe. Though Keoghan does have an interesting take on the Clown Prince of Crime, he did audition for the part of the Riddler—and his audition tape just leaked online.
Watch the Riddler audition here:
Barry Keoghan’s audition for The Riddler in ‘THE BATMAN’ before he was cast as Joker. pic.twitter.com/S4LBKMxdn0
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) October 3, 2022
We don’t really have any dialogue for the scene, but it really seems that Keoghan has figured out a physical language for his Riddler, and a lot of fans have been pointing out inspiration from the Alex DeLarge character from Clockwork Orange.
If anything, the take is pretty far from the Zodiac-inspired version of the Riddler that Paul Dano plays, but the playful nature of the cane and suspenders if very ‘Joker’ and that’s probably why Keoghan got cast in the part.
We don’t know if WB wants to continue with Keoghan’s version of the Joker, but I do love the original take by Reeves in that the Joker’s permanent smile comes from a physical deformity that he was born with. With the Joker being relatively dapper in his takes over the years, I’m interested to see this all-new take on his origin and how it would relate to Pattinson’s version of Batman.
No details have been released for a Batman sequel yet, but I’m hoping that Reeves introduces several villains like he did with the first movie. Besides Joker, fans are hoping we could get an adaptation of Heart of Ice starring Mr. Freeze. Personally, I’m all for a project that I didn’t even know I wanted. I guess it’s up to Matt Reeves to find out what that is.
No release date has been announced for the Batman sequel.
