Director Matt Reeves has released a deleted scene from his superhero epic 'The Batman'.
The chilling scene features Robert Pattinson's Caped Crusader facing off against his classic nemesis, the Joker, played by Barry Keoghan.
As Reeves explained to Variety in a recent interview, the scene follows Batman's discovery that the Riddler has killed the Gotham City police commissioner, leaving behind another of his cryptic notes addressed to the Batman. Unnerved by the Riddler's interest in him, Batman decides to seek out insight into what makes the Riddler tick.
The filmmaker liked the idea of suggesting to the audience that Gotham is rife with villains just on the edge of the story and that Keoghan's Joker is one of the first enemies Batman captures.
Reeves noted, "You realize that they have a relationship and that this guy obviously did something, and Batman somehow got him into Arkham."
"Almost our anniversary, isn't it?" Joker tells Batman in the scene.
Batman pushes Joker for reasons why Riddler is doing what he's doing, and why he's leaving notes for Batman at all of his crimes.
"Maybe he's a fan of yours?" Joker says. "Or maybe he's got a grudge against you, too. Maybe you're the main course."
The scene crescendos with Joker taunting Batman with the unsettling truth that there's a part of him that agrees with Riddler's decision to dispatch Gotham leaders who are mired in corruption.
"I think somewhere, deep down, you're just terrified because you're not sure he's wrong," Joker says, dissolving into cackles.
While this scene was deleted, Reeves kept a follow-up scene at the end of 'The Batman' in which Joker and Riddler connect in adjacent cells in the Arkham State Hospital.
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