Matt Reeves' The Batman may be focused on pitting Pattinson's Bat against the Riddler, but the reboot also has a perfect Joker setup in Barry Keoghan
Even with trailers out there, The Batman still holds a lot of secrets, and one of them could be the perfect new Joker in its midst. Because Eternals star Barry Keoghan, who has been revealed to play a part in Matt Reeves’ Dark Knight reboot, would be the perfect new foil to Robert Pattinson’s Batman. Yes, his character name may suggest otherwise, but there could be more to Keoghan’s role, and it would be a great reveal.
At face value, Keoghan is playing a GCPD officer, nondescript and so unremarkable that he’s not featured in the marketing yet. But Keoghan is an upcoming star and a very gifted actor in his own right and casting him as a nobody in a film like this, almost similarly talented character actors with similar vibes is conspicuous by its oddness. So while Keoghan's The Batman character may be called Stanley Merkel, it’s hard not to believe the eye-catching rumours that he’s more. That is particularly intriguing given the suggestion that Keoghan’s own brother prematurely confirmed those Clown Prince rumors not so long after his casting was confirmed.
Whether the rumors are true or not, Keoghan fits the profile. In a universe where Paul Dano is playing a Zodiac-like Riddler, an edgier Joker you can imagine facing Tommy Shelby in a Peaky Blinders knife fight makes so much sense you almost wish the confirmation was already here. And there are further reasons to believe that Keoghan would be the perfect Joker opposite Robert Pattinson's new Batman and that The Batman is better off revealing him than a sequel.
Though Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker was a revelation - and a defiantly bitten thumb to the suggestion he didn’t need an origin - his leap across to The Batman’s DCEU annex was never likely. Sure, there could be more interesting stories to tell in that alternate universe, but let it be told away from Matt Reeves’ story and let’s all just enjoy the promise of more Batman without a continuity care in the world. More complex for The Batman is the shadow of the former Jokers a new iteration would have to compete with. Romero, Nicholson, and Ledger all offered definitive takes for different strokes, and Leto was an admirable if somewhat misguided swing for something formidable and new, and Reeves’ Joker needs to compete with and compliment them all. Having him start as a GCPD police officer, even if just as a cover, is an intriguing twist because each previous Joker has arrived fully formed or arrived there very quickly in Nicholson’s case. Keoghan’s Merkel playing his own disguise against Batman’s Bruce Wayne costume is a delicious maneuver that throws something new and exciting into the mix immediately.
And before the inevitable accusations that Batman movies need to be braver than returning to the same font of inspiration each time, the Joker is not to be mothballed. Yes, there is a significant Batman Rogues Gallery that has not been explored yet, but the Joker is Batman’s outrageous mirror, whose perverse showmanship is the antithesis of a vengeful, shadowy maverick. To not have him involved would be a fundamental imbalance; an unsatisfyingly half-told story. And at least in the Merkel setup, there would be innovation and difference from inception.
The early footage of The Batman and the first trailer both include what appears to be a gang of clowns terrorizing Gotham. Pattinson’s Batman shows off his new brand of ultraviolence against one of those very mooks, and without a master, the clowns seem curiously illogical. Colin Farrell’s Penguin feels more conventional, somehow, and Paul Dano's new Riddler is a lone wolf with a dangerous message. Sure, the clowns might have been just some of the criminal detritus of Gotham but there’s no smoke without fire, and not having a Joker pay-off would be like showing riddles and not setting up The Riddler. It’s too familiar to be successful misdirection.
From a more symbolic point of view, The Batman has already been suggested as a formative story for Pattinson’s Bat. He’s naive and volatile and though it’s not an origin story, it is very much one centered on how the filth of Gotham shapes the Dark Knight. Intriguingly, there even seems to be a suggestion of him being tempted into a more criminal part of the moral spectrum with Dano’s Riddler offering another black mirror to him. But that formative experience also needs balance and introducing the presence of his greatest nemesis in the early stages of his own journey is the perfect answer. From out of the Riddler-made wreckage, both sides of the coin can emerge for a sequel story.
Keoghan’s career so far has followed a similar interesting trajectory to his ‘71 co-star Jack O’Connell: great British productions, astutely chosen to either put him in the proximity of great talent or great work. He’s been a part of the brutal and the beautiful, creatively speaking and in the wake of his critically acclaimed roles in The Killing of a Secret Deer and Calm With Horses, he’s now unquestionably “broken through”. He’s already worked with incredibly gifted directors in a broad spectrum of roles that test his own range including the unique challenge of making a mark as Druig in Marvel's huge Eternals cast. That he managed to should come as no surprise.
His roles also tell more than just his good career choices: there’s a vein of characters steeped in crime or forced through unthinkable trauma, who all retain his irresistible roguish charisma. He’s somewhat like a rougher/edged Cillian Murphy, shaped differently by his amateur boxing background, perhaps, but with the same disarming charm. He’s proved himself capable of ticking several boxes that a new Joker would benefit from: convincing violence credentials, charisma, inherent darker edges, and the same unexpected element that benefited Heath Ledger.
The Riddler’s entire story as presented by The Batman marketing is centered on the idea of Gotham’s corruption and his quest to rip out the poisoned flesh. Not only that, but Dano’s masked villain seems intent on proving the hypocrisy of the place by showing exactly how twisted into corruption the elite all are, including Batman. That inevitably also means taking aim at Gotham’s police force, which has already been shown as corrupt in other Batman iterations, of course. How delicious a setup, though, to have Gotham’s two paragons of virtue - Batman and Jim Gordon - so closely tied to corruption, given Riddler’s hints to Wayne and the fact that Merkel was Gordon’s former partner. That reveal of Merkel being a criminal - even if only a proto-Joker at that point - fits the whole picture rather beautifully. And both the new Batman and the new Joker being the product of Gotham’s moral rot is even more perfect, explaining their traditional co-dependence even better.
