Who plays the Joker in The Batman cameo scene?

As one of the most well-known comic book heroes to consistently make its way onto the big screen – as well as video games and animated series – Batman and his world are quite well known to the general public. So when a new version of him emerges, it’s natural to see how that new interpretation affects the rest of Gotham City. Which inevitably leads to Joker.

Matt Reeves The Batman shoots a Nirvana-fueled mystery version of the Caped Crusader that’s truly mesmerizing, and his version of the Riddler is wildly idiosyncratic, a makeover of the strange eye

Fab Five if it were more about serial killers than self-affirmation. Everyone would be wondering: if this is the Riddler, what would Reeves’ Joker look like?

[Ed. Note: The rest of this post contains spoilers for The Batman.]

Viewers in The Batman watch television news, which shows a close-up of the Riddler's mask and his thick glasses. A chyron reads

The BatmanThe Resolution is a collection of scenes dedicated to closing grace notes for its characters. One of those scenes catches up with Riddler (Paul Dano), now locked up in Arkham Asylum – where he strikes up a conversation with someone in a nearby cell.

The film never allows viewers a clear view of the speaker, but a pale face and a very familiar grin can be seen through a small window in the neighboring cell door. That leaves very little room for ambiguity alongside colorful language with clown metaphors: this guy is almost certainly Joker.

This is further compounded by the fact that he is played by Barry Keoghan (The Eternals slaying a sacred stag), who receives star billing in the credits. This would cause most viewers familiar with Keoghan’s face to blink a few times because he is nowhere to be seen and it is impossible to make out anyone in the scene where he is talking to Danos Riddler.

What his looks might mean is a little harder to pin down. There are currently no announced sequel plans for The Batman, although you almost certainly think about it. Warner Bros. has already announced an HBO Max spinoff series starring Colin Farrell’s take on the penguin, as well as a series about the Gotham Police Department. Both could potentially feature Joker in some way – an idea endorsed by director Matt Reeves an interview with the Toronto Sunwhere he alluded to the Penguin series and also to another “connected to Arkham”.

This would be the fourth cinematic version of Joker, a number that’s kind of absurd given Batman’s vast bank of excellent villains. Of course Keoghan’s indeed Role is “Unnamed Arkham Prisoner” so we could be wrong too. Maybe he is The creeper!