The Batman 2: Do We Really Need Another Joker?

The Batman 2 comes out in October of 2025, and while the premise has been pretty hush-hush so far, the film will likely heavily feature Barry Keoghan’s Joker. His take on the Clown Prince of Crime was revealed towards the end of The Batman in a delicately shot conversation between his character and Paul Dano’s Riddler. Of course, there was also that famous deleted scene which featured Robert Pattinson’s Batman interrogating him at Arkham Asylum, but his presence in The Batman 2 is set to be more prominent.

Here’s the thing – we’ve had a whole lot of Jokers in movies. One could say the same thing about Batman, but at some point, isn’t it almost too much? Barry Keoghan is an amazing actor, fresh off his wild performance in Saltburn, and his touching role in The Banshees of Inisherin. He’ll certainly be good in the role, but do we really need a new Joker? To some extent, haven’t we had enough (excellent) takes on the role? Heath Ledger is arguably the most iconic from The Dark Knight, but Joaquin Phoenix is the most acclaimed, winning an Oscar. He’s got Joker: Folie a Deux out later this year, which may well be another major Oscar contender. Won’t any follow-up Joker be measured to his impossibly high standard? Remember what happened to Jared Leto in Suicide Squad? One could argue that his appearance as The Joker hurt his career more than it helped it. It seems like a risk for Keoghan to play The Joker if he’s going to be overshadowed by Phoenix this way.

In this video, our host, Kier Gomes, takes a look at both of Keoghan’s scenes in The Batman (including the deleted one) to judge whether or not he can bring something new to the table and really make his own impression as Batman’s greatest nemesis.