Matt Reeves, the director of the highly successful The Batman released a 5-minute deleted scene from Bruce Wayne’s incredibly journey as the Dark Knight featuring Batman’s facing off against his most infamous nemesis, the Joker, played creepily by Barry Keoghan. The scene is available after visiting the Rataalada website from the word puzzles posed by the Riddler (Paul Dano) in the movie.
The scene follows Batman’s discovery that the Riddler (Paul Dano) has killed the Gotham City police commissioner, leaving behind another of his cryptic notes addressed to the Batman. Unnerved by the Riddler’s interest in him, Batman decides to seek out insight into what makes the Riddler tick.
In an interview with Variety, Reeves explained, “I thought he would be really insecure about this, and he’d probably want to find some way to get into the [Riddler’s] mindset, like in ‘Manhunter’ or ‘Mindhunter’ — this idea of profiling somebody, so you can predict his next move,” Reeves said.
The scene, as seen above, alludes to Gotham being overtaken with villains and that Keoghan’s Joker is one of the first enemies Batman captures and it’s the beginning of their well-documented history.
“Almost our anniversary, isn’t it?” Joker tells Batman in the scene.
Batman pushes Joker for reasons why Riddler is doing what he’s doing, and why he’s leaving notes for Batman at all of his crimes.
“Maybe he’s a fan of yours?” Joker says. “Or maybe he’s got a grudge against you, too. Maybe you’re the main course.”
The scene ends with Joker taunting Batman with the unsettling truth there’s a part of him that agrees with Riddler’s decision to dispatch Gotham leaders who are mired in corruption.
“I think somewhere, deep down, you’re just terrified, because you’re not sure, he’s wrong,” Joker says, dissolving into cackles.
