Barry Keoghan's Joker is rumored to be set for a new film and series

Barry Keoghan's Joker could be the last laugh The Batman Trilogy. After Eternal And Salt burn The actor made a cameo appearance in 2022 The Batman film – and a five-minute deleted scene that was eventually released online – director Matt Reeves insisted the brief cameo didn't happen The Batman Part II. “The idea was more to say, 'If you think the trouble in Gotham is going to go away, you can forget about it.' “It’s already here,” Reeves said of the imprisoned Riddler (Paul Dano)’s budding relationship with his fellow Arkham inmate, already imprisoned by the Dark Knight (Robert Pattinson).

“It's not an Easter egg scene,” Reeves explained in a 2022 interview. “It's not one of those Marvel or DC end credits scenes where it's like, 'Hey, here's the next movie!' In fact, I have no idea when or if we would return to this character in the films.”

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According to a report by Derek Faraci on the Marvelvision podcast, the Joker is not there The Batman Part IIbut will be the main villain instead The Batman Part III. The report claims that Keoghan will appear again for the first time in a spin-off series like this The penguinbut it is unclear whether it is a Joker series or a series with the Batman villain.

In that way penguin is the bridge between The Batman And The Batman Part IIthis rumored series would connect the next two films in what Reeves calls “The Batman Epic Crime Saga.” /Film confirmed the rumors.

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Reeves developed Future with producer Dylan Clark Batman Spin-off series set in the Gotham City Police Department and Arkham Asylum that ultimately made no progress. It's possible that the Arkham series was reworked after HBO's success to focus on Keoghan's Joker The penguinwhich follows Oz Cobb's (Colin Farrell) rise to power The Batman movie.

“The streaming cable spot was a given for some of the bigger characters. Casey [Bloys, HBO CEO] was the first person to say, “I need a standout character,” Clark told ComicBook about the decision to spin off Farrell's Penguin into his own series. “And Matt said, 'I have a really good idea for Colin for the second film.' And Casey said, “I want that.” You can't just have these characters in the film room. So it was a natural transition and I think we have some great ideas to explore more characters from our film division to do the same with Casey and Sarah [Aubrey, Max original programming chief].”

The Joker is one of these main characters, as is Zoë Kravitz's Catwoman. Clark previously revealed that the network is developing a yet-to-be-released television series set in the world of The Batman.

Warner Bros. Pictures has dated The Batman Part II for October 2, 2026.