Barry Keoghan not asked to reprise Joker role but he’s ready for The Batman sequel

Barry Keoghan's turn as the Joker, a chaotic evildoer and Batman's worst enemy, in Matt Reeves' The Batman was a welcome surprise for fans of the franchise as they got to see a new take on the iconic supervillain.

Despite only appearing briefly in The Batman's final moments, Keoghan's Joker was recently included in a list of the best on-screen Jokers. "There were seven and I was number four," he said in an interview with GQ Magazine. "Lads, with four minutes of screen time, not bad eh!?"

A deleted scene from the movie gave fans a better look at this new version of the Joker who sports missing hair, bloody nails, heavy facial scarring, and disfigurement. While this tease seemed to imply that fans can expect to see more of him in future projects, The Batman 2 has not yet actually been green-lit by Warner Bros, and Keoghan hasn't received his invitation to return as the Joker yet. "As soon as that call comes," he insisted, "I'm there man, I'm there."

Funnily enough, Keoghan had originally lobbied to get cast as the Riddler, even going so far as to create an unsolicited audition tape of himself in character. The video depicts him in black formal clothing and green suspenders, complete with the Riddler's classic bowler hat and cane, as he menacingly stalks a corridor. When he approached Dylan Clark, the producer of The Batman, the role of Riddler had already been filled, but he asked Clark to watch the audition anyway. Some time later, he got a call from his agent and found out that the The Batman people wanted him as the Joker instead.

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With director Matt Reeves working on an Arkham Asylum series, that just might be where we see Keoghan's Joker pop up next. In the meantime, the actor is also dead set on securing a part in Taika Waititi's Star Wars movie. "I'm tryna meet him," he remarked, "I've been askin' everyone."