There’s plenty to chew on in the first trailer for The Batman, whether it’s Robert Pattinson’s brooding Caped Crusader or early glimpses of villains like Catwoman, Penguin and a killer who may or may not be the Riddler. But wherever a new Batman appears, there must also be a Joker. And so fans may be wondering at this point – where is the Joker in this new universe? Has he appeared yet, or is the Clown Prince of Crime a problem for a future sequel?
Read on to learn how Joker normally fits into the Batman mythos and the early signs that he may already have begun to torment Batman and his city.
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When Does Batman Meet the Joker?
While the details vary, Joker is usually among the first supervillains Batman faces after beginning his war on crime. 1989’s Batman depicts Joker as the very first supervillain to oppose Batman (that we know of), even revealing a young Jack Napier was the criminal who murdered the Waynes. That’s not usually how the story plays out, however. Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is more true to the source material in that regard. Batman Begins ends with Batman and James Gordon first starting to become aware of Joker, and the villain doesn’t fully emerge until a year later in The Dark Knight, challenging a Batman who believes himself to have become master of his city.
In the comics, Joker debuted in 1940’s Batman #1, a year after Batman himself first appeared in 1939’s Detective Comics #27. That same issue also features the first appearance of Catwoman, and these two characters predate the first appearances of both Riddler and Penguin, two villains we know have parts to play in The Batman. Based on that, it’s certainly not unreasonable to assume Joker has begun his crime spree in the world of The Batman. The original Joker story even featured the character murdering wealthy Gotham citizens, not unlike the murder mystery playing out in the new movie.
The Batman takes place in Year 2 of Batman’s career. That also happens to be the general time period of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s Batman: The Long Halloween, a murder mystery-driven graphic novel that seems to be a significant influence on the movie. The Long Halloween features the origin of Two-Face, while pretty much every other classic Batman rogue (Joker included) is already established by this point. That could be further reason to believe Joker already exists in this universe, whether or not he actually appears in the movie.
However, the exact timeline of Joker’s debut is less important than the dynamic between Batman and his nemesis. Going back to Nolan’s The Dark Knight, Joker is a character who challenges Batman’s notions of justice and the idea that he can ultimately save his city if he remains committed. Joker needs to appear at a time when Batman is confident in his skills and methods, acting as an agent of chaos to overturn Batman’s carefully crafted system of order. Everything Matt Reeves said about Pattinson’s Batman at DC FanDome suggests this Batman is still rough around the edges and learning his way on the job. Even if Joker is lurking somewhere in Gotham, it may be too soon for him to make his presence known.
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The Clown Gang
Interestingly, the trailer seems to be almost encouraging questions about the Joker thanks to the scene featuring Batman confronting a gang of criminals in clown makeup. Are we to assume these are Joker’s henchmen? That’s certainly possible. Even if Joker himself is keeping a low profile, director Matt Reeves may want to include hints that he’s plotting and will eventually become a major thorn in Batman’s side.
However, another possibility is that the gang is a prelude to the creation of the Joker himself. One of the takeaways from this scene is that Batman isn’t having the desired effect on Gotham’s criminal underworld. Ordinary citizens are afraid of the armored vigilante terrorizing their streets, but these gang members seem to be another story entirely. They aren’t afraid, at least until Batman beats one of their number into a bloody pulp. If anything, the black and white clown makeup with its vague Day of the Dead motif may be a sign that criminals are beginning to follow Batman’s example. To coin a phrase from Liam Neeson’s Ra’s al Ghul, they’re using theatricality and deception just like the Dark Knight himself.
Joker may be the end result of this phenomenon – a villain who understands the power of a symbol every bit as well as Batman himself. And it could be that one of these same criminals Batman is trying to intimidate will graduate to become the Joker in the sequel.
If so, the new series could be drawing on Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman: Zero Year. Zero Year is set during the early months of Batman’s career and features Riddler as its main villain. However, the man who becomes Joker plays a pivotal role early on in the story. Zero Year draws on earlier stories like The Killing Joke that depict Joker masquerading as the Red Hood before falling into that infamous vat of toxic chemicals. In this version of events, an entire gang of criminals known as the Red Hood Gang (most of them ordinary citizens blackmailed into joining) are terrorizing Gotham before Batman confronts their ringleader, Red Hood One. That confrontation ends with Red Hood One falling into the toxic chemicals, suggesting he may emerge on the other side as the Joker.
The movie could feature a similar confrontation, with Batman taking down the clown gang, only to inadvertently spawn a much greater threat when one of these clowns is inspired to become something much greater and more terrible.
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Is The Batman a Joker Sequel?
There’s been some speculation The Batman is actually a followup to 2019’s Joker. That speculation has been fueled in part by early rumors that The Batman is a period piece set in the 1990s. The timing certainly matches up. Joker is set in 1981, so that version of Bruce Wayne would probably be returning to Gotham and beginning his crusade around the point when Ace of Base was all the rage.
However, based on the trailer it would appear The Batman is not actually a ’90s movie. Even so, the movie is reminiscent of Joker. It’s incredibly bleak, dark and violent – basically as close as you can get to Joker tonally while still allowing for a protagonist who dresses in a military-grade bat costume. Even the newly revealed logo is eerily similar to that of Joker. It’s basically the same font and everything.
To be clear, The Batman probably isn’t a sequel to Joker. Despite being a very dark take on the Batman mythos, we don’t see Warner Bros. tying the rebooted franchise to an R-rated prequel. Not to mention the fact that Joker’s version of Gotham City is just a thinly disguised New York, whereas the Gotham in The Batman is a Gothic wonderland built on the backbone of Liverpool.
Still, it’s easy to see how The Batman could connect to Joker if Warners were so inclined. The clown gang could be a group of criminals who were inspired by the legendary Arthur Fleck. Depending on how you choose to interpret Joker’s ambiguous ending, Fleck himself could still be holed up inside Arkham Asylum, or another villain may be inspired to take up the mantle of the Joker. Even if Warners never makes the connection explicit, Joker could be viewed as an unofficial prequel to The Batman.
For more on the upcoming reboot, see why that may not be the Riddler leaving a trail of bodies in the trailer, why the movie doesn’t appear to be set in the ’90s after all, and find out how the Gotham PD prequel series ties in.
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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Source: IGN.com The Batman: Where Is the Joker in This Reboot?