Following the news that MCU actor Sebastian Stan is now in talks to join the highly anticipated DC sequel The Batman Part II, it has also now been revealed which other major supervillain will return for director Matt Reeves’ long-awaited follow-up. Stan, who is best known for his role as Bucky Barnes, aka The Winter Soldier in the MCU, as well as acclaimed performances in the likes of The Apprentice and A Different Man, will reportedly join the sequel as Harvey Dent, aka Two-Face. And it seems that he won’t be alone in his vendetta against The Dark Knight.
Buried within the report regarding Stan’s casting by Variety, the outlet revealed that “ Barry Keoghan is also expected to appear once more as the Joker.” While this isn’t a full-on, undeniable confirmation of The Clown Prince of Crime’s comeback, it would certainly make sense for the Joker to return in a story centering on Harvey Dent as Reeves seemingly continues to use comic book arc “The Long Halloween” as his main inspiration.
However, the inclusion of both Dent and Joker alongside Robert Pattinson’s Batman could make The Batman 2 simply another version of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Though, based on The Batman, the follow-up could be a fittingly scarred flip side to Nolan’s crowd-pleasing blockbuster. The Batman: Part II is scheduled to be released on October 1, 2027, with another MCU actor, Scarlett Johansson, also in talks to star.
What Do We Know About the Joker in ‘The Batman’ Universe?
Played by Oscar-nominee and The Banshees of Inisherin star, Barry Keoghan’s Joker only appeared in a glimpse at the very end of The Batman, with audiences able to get a better look at the character in a deleted scene. Despite such little runtime, Keoghan made quite the impression, delivering a far darker, viciously scarred version of the character, who bests even Batman’s detective skills as he plays a Hannibal Lector-esque role.
Keoghan has since offered some insight into his portrayal of the Joker, a role he has also revealed came off the back of an unsolicited audition tape for another Batman villain, The Riddler. Calling his disfigured and damaged Joker “a bit charming and a bit hurt,” the actor added that “I wanted some sort of human in there behind the makeup. I want people to relate to him… [to know] this is a façade he puts on,” before concluding that he is simply “a broken-down boy.”
Director Matt Reeves, meanwhile, has cited the original inspiration for the Joker, the 96-year-old horror movie The Man Who Laughs, as the major inspiration for his iteration. “One of the things that we talked a lot about was the idea, that his worldview is sort of formed by his being disfigured from birth. It was kind of like a cruel joke that life was playing on him, as well,” he said, before adding…
“His whole philosophy of life, and the laughing that he does in that kind of insidious, upsetting way, comes from the joke that has been played on him in his existence. This is who he is, so that’s how he sees the world, so that’s our point of entry into him. It’s dealing with the themes that are Joker themes, but to try and find a different way in, a different point of entry. So that’s something we talked a lot about when we’re doing the scenes.”