Watch The Batman's Deleted Joker Scene With Director's Commentary
While we wait for Warner Bros. to finally come to their senses and greenlight a sequel to "The Batman" already, we can take solace in rewatching our favorite scenes from Matt Reeves' take on the Dark Knight. One of those scenes is the phenomenal opening scene, which transforms Gotham City into a horrible place reminiscent of David Fincher's "Se7en." Yet another great scene is not even in the actual movie. Just over a month after uploading the entire deleted scene from "The Batman" where the titular Caped Crusader meets the Clown Prince of Crime, Warner Bros. has released the clip once again, but this time with commentary from Matt Reeves himself.
'The Joker would have been marked from childhood'
The clip reveals more details about Reeves' take on what he calls "Year Two Gotham," and how he wanted a version of the Batman mythos where all the characters of the city already exist, sort of. Take Joker, for instance, credited as an unseen prisoner in the film. According to Reeves, this version of Joker is not fully himself just yet. Sure, he and Batman already know each other, and something happened that put Joker in Arkham, but he is not the Crown Prince of Crime yet.
But the key to Reeves' take on the character was its new look, which has a disfigured face but not due to scars or acid baths, but from bith. "The Joker would have been marked from childhood," Reeves says in the clip, calling his inspiration for the character the original inspiration for the Joker in the comics — Conrad Veidt's "The Man Who Laughs" with a dash of "The Elephant Man." According to Reeves, this Joker was born with a horrifying smile on his face, which affected the way he looked as the world from the way people were looking at him "like he was a terrifying freak since he was a child."
What's important in the scene is how scary-smart Joker is, not only getting a reading on Riddler from the information Batman gives him, but because he completely reads Bruce Wayne. He sees how unnerved Batman is, as Reeves tells it "[Batman] feels that these people in some way deserved what was coming to them, but it's not acceptable to him."
Sadly, the scene didn't make it to the final film, as Reeves says everything it told was better laid out throughout the rest of the already long film.
"The Batman" is streaming on HBO Max.