One of the most intriguing aspects of Matt Reeves' The Batman is how it created a vast universe for HBO Max spinoffs despite being confined to Gotham. With the city broken, TV series are being explored for Penguin as the rebuild occurs and possibly for Selina Kyle after she took her Catwoman identity to Blüdhaven. It's something Reeves meticulously planned, given the power vacuum rising up from the corrupt ashes of the disgraced locale.
Interestingly, the newly-released deleted scene online featuring Barry Keoghan's grotesque Joker just opened up a new window of opportunity by revealing that he and Robert Pattinson's Dark Knight apparently have a history together. As such, an HBO Max prequel would be a perfect way to detail what happened before Reeves' The Batman took place.
Keoghan's Joker had just about five minutes in this interrogation sequence, which played out like a scene from The Silence of the Lambs. He was the Hannibal Lecter to the Caped Crusader's Clarice, offering advice on the war The Riddler was waging. Granted, he wasn't that helpful, but what was clear was that the Bat was affected by whatever the Clown Prince of Crime had done beforehand. The clown clearly worked his mind, stating this meeting was on the anniversary of the Bat bringing him into Arkham, which opens the door for a TV series to detail the rise of The Joker and how he got arrested.
For years, a Joker origin story was thought taboo, ergo why the comics often danced around it, eventually playing a cryptic game with Batman: Three Jokers as to how the villain came to be. Heath Ledger even danced with various origin stories in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight; fans loved the mystique, but ultimately, Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix showed that the clown's history and what pushed him over the edge can have mass appeal while sticking to the essence and horror of the fiend. In fact, peeling back the curtain on his past is why fans tuned into Gotham because even if they were disillusioned with the later direction of the series, the birth of The Joker was something they couldn't miss.
Thus, seeing as this new filmverse has a brilliant actor in Keoghan and the narrative has the gap, it'd make sense to capitalize on it. It'd add nuance to his rhyme and reason and do the character justice via a real creative portrait as opposed to just stuffing him in a sequel, where he will have to share screen-time with the Bat and other major characters.
Honestly, making this Joker an open book works because shrouding him in mystery would feel a tad repetitive and boring. Instead, by showing his chaotic background, him bumbling around as a gangster and a killer, as well as the ugly transformation, it'd give insight into his human and monster sides. More so, it'd reveal why murder and anarchy made this scarred, boil-ridden villain tick, placing into context why he'd be into The Riddler's terrorism in The Batman.
A Joker-centric series would be a ratings magnet, mixing the grounded takes Phoenix and Ledger did while allowing Keoghan enough time to put his own intimidating stamp on things. And last but not least, it could end with Bat-Pat coming in to save the day by incarcerating him in Arkham, not knowing he'd go on to join Riddler and break Gotham once more.
The Batman is currently playing in theaters.
Source: Trendz OH
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