Matt Reeves’ The Batman hit screens in early March and earned more than $400 million at the box office within ten days of its release. Deadline believes that it is well on track to earn more than $1 billion and will most definitely lead to future offerings in the series.
Now, the question is how Reeves will seek to follow up from his critically acclaimed offering. Paul Dano’s version of the Riddler was incredible and will be hard to beat, which is why many people are expecting the iconic Joker to feature in the next one. However, it may be a wiser move to avoid the clown in favour of an unexpected choice of villain.
It should be noted that this article contains a minor spoiler for The Batman, so if you haven’t seen it yet, you have been warned.
Many People Expect the Joker to Follow
The Joker made a brief appearance at the end of The Batman, talking to The Riddler from within the walls of Arkham Asylum. This scene suggested that the Caped Crusader could potentially come up against his arch-nemesis on his next outing. However, Reeves was quick to put those theories to bed and said that he wasn’t aiming to replicate the MCU model of teasing future movies in post-credits scenes. He simply thought that it would be a cool addition to his picture.
Many fans still expect the Joker to appear in a future instalment in Reeves’ gritty and dark version of Gotham City, as it is difficult to leave out such an important character. Still, Reeves may try to explore other options first before he turns to the notorious bad guy.
The Character has Been Overdone in Recent Times
There are legendary characters in the world of Batman that are so well-known that viewers have certain exceptions about them. The likes of the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler, and Catwoman are listed by ExpressVPN as some of Batman fans’ most beloved foes. Reeves should stay away from this list for now and think about other characters he could introduce. This gives the director and actor the licence to put their own stamp on a villain yet to be shown in popular media.
One set of bad guys from the comics that have rarely appeared on the big screen is the Court of Owls. This is a team of supervillains with several unique and fascinating characters within it. They offer Reeves the prospect of going in a direction that no other Batman director has explored.
The problem for Reeves, essentially, is that the Joker has been overdone in recent years, and audiences may not be ready for a brand-new version of the character. The most recent portrayal was by Joaquin Phoenix in Todd Phillips’ 2019 film, Joker. He won the Oscar for Best Actor for that performance, and a report from Digital Spy suggests there will be a sequel. It’s hard to imagine Phillips and Reeves’ contrasting visions of Gotham colliding now and it wouldn’t make sense to introduce a new actor while the role belongs to Phoenix.
The Joker will always be an essential character in the Batman canon, but there is no need for Reeves to include him in his series yet. It would be much wiser to give viewers some bad guys they aren’t expecting, or some that aren’t quite as mainstream as the usual suspects.
