The Batman’s Joker Has Had His Smile Since Birth, Director Reveals

Warning: This post contains major spoilers for The Batman.

The Batman‘s surprise character has had his twisted smile since he was born, director Matt Reeves reveals. Last weekend, The Batman arrived and upended the typical Bruce Wayne mythology with a dark detective story that digs into the heart of Gotham City. Robert Pattinson plays Bruce here, and he stars opposite an impressive supporting cast that includes Zoe Kravitz, Colin Farrell, Andy Serkis, Paul Dano, John Turturro, and Jeffrey Wright.

The Batman also has one more major star tucked in its ranks, though Reeves kept him hidden until the end. In the lead up to the movie’s release, it was confirmed that Barry Keoghan had a role as an “Unnamed Arkham Prisoner”. There were plenty of theories about who he might be playing, but The Batman silenced them all by confirming he’s this universe’s Joker. Keoghan is glimpsed mainly in shadow as he speaks to the Riddler (Dano) from his cell, but even that doesn’t do much to hide his unsettling grin, a surefire sign that he’s the future Clown Prince of Crime. Reeves confirmed Keoghan’s Batman role as soon as the movie was released, and he’s since revealed new details about his version of the Joker.

In a conversation with IGN about all the Batman spoilers, Reeves discussed the distinctive design he came up with for Keoghan’s Joker. When it came to that typical Joker grin, the director revealed it’s actually a result of a congenital disease. The Joker has had that smile since birth, and that’s twisted his perception of the world. Reeves explained:

“He’s got this congenital disease. He can never stop smiling. And it made Mike and I think about — I was talking about The Elephant Man because I love David Lynch. And I was like, ‘Well, maybe there’s something here where it’s not something where he fell in a vat of chemicals or it’s not the Nolan thing where he has these scars and we don’t know where they came from. What if this is something that he’s been touched by from birth and that he has a congenital disease that refuses to let him stop smiling? And he’s had this very dark reaction to it, and he’s had to spend a life of people looking at him in a certain way and he knows how to get into your head.’”

As Reeves pointed out, previous onscreen Jokers have come up with various explanations for why he smiles the way he does. Recent versions of the character seen in Suicide Squad and Joker have used makeup to give him the typical red lips, then allowed the actors in question (Jared Leto and Joaquin Phoenix, respectively) to pull out the grin when necessary. When it comes to The Batman and its likely sequels, Reeves is taking things back to the Joker’s true origins. By making the reason for the grin be a disease, the director has kept the larger-than-life villain grounded in reality, much like the rest of the comic book characters within The Batman.

Keoghan’s appearance as the Joker seemed to be a major sequel tease, but Reeves has adamantly stated that was never the intention. The Batman 2 is practically a guarantee at this point, and it does seem incredibly likely that Keoghan will be back in the future, especially since he filmed more than one scene for the first film. However, his next steps forward on the big screen remain a mystery. That’s partially because Reeves hasn’t come up with the story for a sequel just yet. Still, The Batman set up a compelling version of the Joker, and hopefully there will be more ahead with him.