Warning: This article contains spoilers from “The Batman.”

“The Batman” pits Batman against the Riddler and, at times, the Penguin. But does one of Batman’s other notorious villains, the Joker, show up at all?

What happens: The new “The Batman” film shows Bruce Wayne/Batman (Robert Pattinson) in his early years. As he works to save Gotham, a puzzling villain in the Riddler (Paul Dano) shows up to destroy the city and murder some of the city’s biggest leaders.

  • At the end of the film, Riddler is thrown into Arkham Asylum, a home for the criminally insane.
  • While there, he speaks with a mysterious friend in the next cell, who is covered in shadows. The mysterious figure tells the Riddler to relax and to not freak out over what happened in Gotham.
  • The two then, in an odd way, agree to be friends.
  • The mysterious figure, who appears to have a long, carved smile, then wickedly laughs — a laugh that sounds all too similar to the Joker.
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Flashback: Fans have wondered about the Joker’s involvement in “The Batman” since December 2021 when fans and teasers for the film started to drop online, as I wrote for the Deseret News.

  • One trailer out of Japan specifically included Barry Keoghan’s Joker laugh, which is the same laugh heard in the film.
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