The Batman 2 | Barry Keoghan on those Joker rumours

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Whilst he doesn’t say much, Barry Keoghan pretty much confirms we’ll be seeing him play the Clown Prince of Crime in Matt Reeve’s follow-up to 2022’s The Batman.

Before the strikes threw everything into chaos this year, the plan for Matt Reeves follow-up to The Batman was pretty straightforward. He was writing the screenplay in the spring of this year ahead of plans to shoot in March of 2024. That would in turn lead to a 2025 release.

As of right now we have no idea if that’s still the case, after all, Matt Reeves was unable to work on the script for several months due to the writers’ strike, whilst it’s easy to imagine the chaos that scheduling studio space in 2024 could be.

Still, ETalk managed to catch up with Barry Keoghan, who had a small but memorable role in the first film as as the Joker, Batman’s ultimate nemesis.

The Saltburn star (kind of) remained tight-lipped about the whole thing, although kind of not. Here’s his brief take.

“I can’t really say anything about that. It would be exciting, wouldn’t it? To see the Joker come to life again. My smile says all, you know what I mean?”

It’s one of those instances where not saying much is, as you can probably gleam, saying plenty.

We’ve watched the video clip (which you can see here) and Keoghan’s smile is indeed pretty wide. As hints go, it’s a pretty broad one.

The actor’s terrific recent turn in Saltburn has added to the anticipation surrounding his upcoming turn as the Joker. Of course, he is set to join a very distinguished shortlist of actors to have played the character (two of whom have won Academy Awards for doing so), but given the quality of some of his performances thus far, we’re sure he’ll hold his own.

We’ll bring you more official news on The Batman II when we actually hear it. We await the formal confirmation of its release date, for a start…