Barry Keoghan refuses to confirm, but does not deny potentially returning as The Joker in Matt Reeves’ upcoming The Batman: Part II.
It’s now been over three years since Matt Reeves’ The Batman debuted. There hasn’t been a sequel yet, although The Batman: Part II is very much on the way, due for release in 2027. The film’s plot largely remains a mystery, but we know that Colin Farrell will return as The Penguin. The movie has made some big casting additions too, including MCU stars Scarlett Johansson and Sebastian Stan.
Most of the cast from the first film is expected to return, but in the case of Barry Keoghan’s incarnation of The Joker — who only appeared briefly as an Arkham inmate in the theatrical cut and in a deleted scene — a return is not confirmed. You can check out Keoghan’s one and only scene as the Joker down below:
It seems inevitable that he’ll reprise his role, but if you ask Keoghan himself, he plays it very coy indeed. “I cannot answer that question… truly, sincerely. Cannot talk about that,” he told WIRED in a recent auto-complete interview.
It took makeup six hours to make Barry Keoghan into Joker
If Joker returns, it marks another major challenge for the makeup department. According to Keoghan himself, the makeup process to get him Joker-ready took six hours to perfect. “That took six hours to get into that,” he told GQ.
To put this into reference, it took the Joker makeup team 15 minutes to have Joaquin Phoenix ready to film scenes, and over an hour for Heath Ledger’s Joker to be ready for the screen in The Dark Knight. Clearly, Keoghan requires a lot of work to embody the villain, even for one short scene behind bars in Arkham Asylum.
The Batman: Part II is set to release in theatres on October 1, 2027. We’ll keep you posted on all the latest updates!
Disclaimer: Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting our site!
