The Batman's Deleted Scene Fixes Its Joker Problem
A missing scene from The Batman corrects the film's primary flaw with the Joker. Despite the fact that Barry Keoghan's joker only makes a brief appearance near the end of the film, it nevertheless causes problems that damage the picture and could lead to problems in future editions. The Joker's deleted sequence fixes a lot of the problems with his original cameo, but it's not without flaws of its own.
As the Riddler watches his schemes go apart and Gotham begin to recover during the conclusion of The Batman, he meets a fellow Arkham inmate who director Matt Reeves confirmed to be the Joker. Despite the fact that it was only a little sequence, it felt disconnected from the rest of the movie because it provided so little to the storey other than establishing that the joker existed in this realm and will do something at some time. With little else tied to it, the sequence came across as a blatant sequel hook for future chapters of the franchise, and as a result, it muddy an otherwise tight finale for the film.
However, a deleted scene from The Batman could have solved those issues. In the deleted scene, Batman goes to the joker for help on the Riddler case, which he delivers while simultaneously establishing a relationship between the two of them. The moment provides Barry Keoghan's joker a cameo that doesn't feel tacked on because it advances the plot while also portraying his role in the world better. Even if it corrects many of the flaws in the original scene, the scenario isn't without flaws of its own.