Barry Keoghan smiles wide as the Joker in stunning image

Warner Bros. is once again rebooting the Batman film franchise, this time with…The Batman, a new movie starring Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader. Also on hand are Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as the Riddler, and Colin Farrell as the Penguin. They are going straight to full Bat-capacity.

But when we’re talking about Batman villains, I think we all know that one stands above the others. Will the Joker show up in The Batman?

We can’t know for sure, but fans have glommed on to a potential leak that claims that actor Barry Keoghan will appear in the movie as a character named “Stanley Merkel.” Barry Keoghan is an up-and-coming Irish actor who just starred as Druig in Marvel’s Eternals. Considering his upwards trajectory, fans find it hard to believe that he’ll appear in The Batman as some random henchman. And he does have a bit of creepy flair to him. You see where we’re going with this?

Is Barry Keoghan the Joker in The Batman?

We ultimately won’t know whether Barry Keoghan is actually playing the Joker until The Batman comes out in theaters. But until then, fans are having fun dreaming up what Keoghan might look like as the Clown Prince of Crime. The artist m.design34 put together a particularly goulish version that you can check out here.

Sloppily applied lipstick, cracking skin, green hair…but other than that he looks like he’s having a fabulous time.

The Batman will be released on March 4, 2022.

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h/t GameRant