On the heels of additional The Batman content, mostly in the form of ciphers released on rataalada.com, the fictional-now-real Riddler blog site, Warner Bros. has released the film’s first deleted scene: Batman (Robert Pattinson) visiting the Joker (Barry Keoghan) at Arkham Asylum.
The scene was originally edited to appear just after the Riddler assassinates the Gotham City police commissioner. Following the killing, Batman heads to Arkham to gain more insight into the Riddler’s psychology.
In an interview with Variety, director Matt Reeves explained how the scene initially fit into his approach to the Batman universe.
“I thought [Batman] would be really insecure about this and he’d probably want to find some way to get into the [Riddler’s] mindset, like in Manhunter or Mindhunter—this idea of profiling somebody, so you can predict his next move.”
Mindhunter portrays the early days of the FBI’s Behavioural Science Unit, back when criminal profiling was in its infancy. FBI agents visited incarcerated serial killers and conducted interviews to help build these profiling efforts. That interview dynamic became a common fictional trope, most notably in The Silence of the Lambs, when Clarice Starling goes to visit Hannibal Lecter, hoping to gain insight into an active serial killer case. The Batman is taking obvious inspiration from this film, with the Joker playing the part of Hannibal—and the overall tone and structure of the film playing things closer to the comic’s neo-noir detective genre.
The scene also suggests that both Batman and the Joker already have history—a storytelling note that Reeves liked for his first Batman film, which avoids the traditional origin tale.
In terms of the film’s thematics, the scene further explores a dilemma never vocalised in the final edit: that Batman may secretly agree with the Riddler’s plans. Both characters are orphans. Both characters used masked vigilantism to correct past wrongs (they are both “vengeance” incarnate). Much of Batman’s character turmoil involves reconciling this fact with his own economic privilege: whereas Wayne had his family fortune, the Riddler was thrown into Gotham’s underfunded orphanages—the fault primarily of the Wayne family. The quandary never stated is that not only could Bruce have been the Riddler (using the same violent, terroristic methods), but that he’s actually not far from the Riddler. He too uses violence and fear, and his diary entries reveal skepticism to the efficacy of this approach.
Of course, that’s all a bit too complicated and it’s easier for the audience once the Riddler starts doing some real unforgivable shit. Batman’s dilemma disappears into thin air as he can stand (in one of the final scenes) literally on moral high ground.
But the deleted Joker scene reminds us just how complex the Batman-Riddler relationship could still be.
