The Batman & Joker’s Backstory Makes Pattinson’s Dark Knight Better

The Batman’s deleted Joker scene hints at their history and backstory, which gives Pattinson’s Dark Knight an advantage over other Batman movies.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Batman.

The backstory in the Joker’s deleted scene for The Batman shows that hinting at their history and that they’ve already fought gives Robert Pattinson’s Dark knight story a good advantage in the long run. Matt Reeves’s take on Batman has gone to great lengths to distinguish itself from other movie iterations of the Caped Crusader, taking on an earlier time period in the Dark Knight’s career with brutal realism. Barry Keoghan’s version of the Joker is no different, and it bodes well for future installments of The Batman should the Joker fight Batman again.

The Batman’s released deleted scene has Pattinson’s Batman visiting the Joker in Arkham Asylum. Showing him the case file for the Riddler murders, Batman asks the Joker for his perspective on the killings. The Joker is never fully shown in the scene, being out of focus, in close up, or shot from the back. Though Keoghan’s Joker does also appear at the end of The Batman with the Riddler, the movie’s deleted scene offers a tantalizing glimpse at the twisted madman behind the scarred smile, as well as his backstory with Batman.

Related: The Batman’s Deleted Scene Makes Barry Keoghan’s Joker Role Even Better

Giving Pattinson’s Batman a history with the Joker right from the start is an improvement on the other cinematic versions of Batman that have only shown their initial fight. Both 1989’s Batman and 2008’s The Dark Knight feature iconic Joker performances, but their stories are confined to a single movie. Jared Leto’s Joker also has a backstory with Ben Affleck’s Batman, but with Affleck hanging up his cape after The Flash, their story also doesn’t appear to be moving forward. Conversely, with The Batman showing that Pattinson’s Dark Knight has already defeated the Joker, future films can tap into the rich comic history of Joker as Batman’s eternal nemesis. There is no Joker origin story to be told (similar to how The Batman starts in Bruce Wayne’s second year of crime-fighting) as audiences have already seen that story unfold previously.

With over 80 years of Batman and Joker comic book stories to draw from, skipping the setup for their history and their first fight is a good move from Reeves. Very little detail is needed to establish Batman and Joker’s backstory (such as Joker mentioning it’s almost their “anniversary” of their first fight and that he’s already in Arkham) as the audience can fill in the blanks. It’s much better for their history to be implied as the characters can then evolve beyond previous movie versions and give fans something fresh from their fights. With Reeves building a rogues gallery for The Batman’s universe, it’s more efficient from a storytelling perspective to have them already cross paths, and makes the world feel established and live in.

As good as the Joker scene is, it’s probably for better that it was left on the cutting room floor. With The Batman already almost 3 hours long, the scene could’ve slowed the movie down. It also would have robbed the Riddler of some of his reveals to Pattinson’s Batman at Arkham later on in the movie. Reeves hasn’t committed to using the Joker in The Batman 2, but even if he’s only used sparingly, they won’t have to waste time covering old ground through an origin story and can instead dig deeper into Batman and Joker’s yin/yang relationship. Meanwhile, the potential  Arkham Asylum television series that will spin off from The Batman could still give Keoghan’s Joker more opportunity to provide hints of his history with Pattinson’s Batman.

Next: Did The Batman’s Joker Cut His Own Face Off?

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