Warner Bros. made fans of “The Batman” go buck wild on Thursday when they released a deleted scene from the superhero flick.
The clip showed actor Barry Keoghan’s character, the Joker, coming face to face with Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader.
The five-minute clip showed Keoghan through a jail’s hazy glass partition as he speaks with Batman.
The “Eternals” star sports smeared white clown makeup, razored ash-blond hair, handcuffs and an orange-and-white striped Arkham Asylum jumpsuit.
“Almost our anniversary, isn’t it?” the scarred clown tells Batman in the clip.
The superhero went to the Joker to get information on his current nemesis, the Riddler (played by Paul Dano), and why the prankster is leaving notes for Batman.
“Maybe he’s a fan of yours?” Joker notes. “Or maybe he’s got a grudge against you, too. Maybe you’re the main course.”
The Joker then teases and taunts Bruce Wayne-as-Batman with the idea that there may be a tiny, minuscule slice of him that agrees with the Riddler’s actions since Gotham’s leaders are corrupt.
“I think somewhere, deep down, you’re just terrified, because you’re not sure he’s wrong,” Joker laughs maniacally.
Following the film’s release earlier this month, director Matt Reeves very, very subtly confirmed that the Irish performer was in fact, the Joker. In the movie’s end credits, he was listed as “Unseen Arkham Prisoner.”
“He’s who you think he is,” Reeves told members of the press. “I would say the thing about the movie is that it isn’t a Batman origin story, but it is the origin story of every rogues gallery character that you come across. So Selina Kyle is not yet Catwoman, and the Penguin is not yet the kingpin, and the character that you’re referring to is not yet the character that you’re referring to, but it is in fact him.”
The filmmaker dished to Variety last month that the fans were correct, “You’re right. It is the Joker.”
“It’s not an Easter-egg scene,” he said. “It’s not one of those end credits Marvel or DC scenes where it’s going, like, ‘Hey, here’s the next movie!’ In fact, I have no idea when or if we would return to that character in the movies.”