Why so serious?
DC Studios co-chief James Gunn is disputing multiple reports that have percolated across the internet that the studio has been pursuing a TV series starring Barry Keoghan as the Joker, a character the actor originated in a brief cameo in 2022’s “The Batman.”
“A Joker series is not being discussed nor has even come up at this time,” Gunn posted to Threads.
The reports, which appear to have originated on an episode of the Marvelvision podcast, claimed that Gunn and “The Batman” filmmaker Matt Reeves were planning to bridge “The Batman Part II” and “The Batman Part III” with a purported Joker series, in much the same way that HBO’s “The Penguin” with Colin Farrell is narratively connecting the events from “The Batman” and “The Batman Part II,” which is set to start filming next year.
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Gunn, however, threw cold water on that notion. “Turn on threads and everyone is asking me about this,” he posted. “No there is absolutely no truth to this.”
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A Joker series did strike some as a curious idea, given the recent high profile box office failure of “Joker: Folie à Deux,” not to mention Reeves’ own stated reticence to tell another Joker story with his “Batman” films. Keoghan only appears briefly, and almost totally obscured, in one of the final scenes of “The Batman,” and he’s credited as “Unseen Arkham Inmate.” Reeves confirmed to Variety in 2022 that Keoghan was indeed playing the Joker, but “it’s not an Easter egg scene,” he said. “It’s not one of those end credits Marvel or DC scenes where it’s going, like, ‘Hey, here’s the next movie!’ In fact, I have no idea when or if we would return to that character in the movies.”
A few weeks after the film’s debut, Warner Bros. released a deleted scene from “The Batman” that showcased Keoghan’s performance and introduced Joker’s relationship with Robert Pattinson’s caped crusader. But Reeves also told Variety that when he discussed playing Joker with Keoghan, he was up front that there was no guarantee that he would play the role again.
“I said to Barry, right from the beginning, ‘Look, I don’t know where this is going to go. I can’t promise that it’ll even ever come back. I don’t know,'” Reeves said. “And I still feel that way now. I’m not sure exactly.”
A rep for DC Studios did not respond to a request for comment on the reports about a Joker series.
