Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne Shouldn’t Fight Joker Until The Batman 3

There’s a lot of anxiety around The Batman and its future, as fans naturally want to see Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne go against a new version of the Joker, but if that’s to happen, it should until The Batman 3 – here’s why. As one of the most popular superheroes ever, Batman has gone through many adaptations to other media, but his history on the big screen has been particularly interesting, as it’s full of successes and some big failures as well. After the most recent version – that of Ben Affleck – ceased to function to connect with the audience, Batman is getting another chance, though now separate from the DCEU.

The Caped Crusader’s next big-screen adventure is The Batman, directed by Matt Reeves and with Robert Pattinson as the title character, and it will have various approaches to the famous vigilante. The Batman will follow a younger Bruce Wayne during his second year of fighting crime in Gotham City, also giving the audience a look into his detective phase. The Batman will also see the title character come across some of his most famous villains: Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin (Colin Farrell), and The Riddler (Paul Dano), the latter serving as the main antagonist.

With all these villains seeming in this Batman universe so early, fans immediately wondered if the Joker will also show up (as a surprise villain) or if he will be the bad guy to defeat in a potential sequel, with some going as far as hoping Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker will be the nemesis to Pattinson’s Batman. While there’s no word on whether or not Pattinson’s Batman will come across a new version of the Joker at some point, lent the popularity of the Clown Prince of Crime, it wouldn’t be surprising if he becomes the antagonist in a sequel, but as much as fans would like to see him as soon as possible, it would be best for this new trilogy to bring the Joker into the mix until the third movie.

This young Batman is already facing too many villains in his debut movie, and when taking into account that he’s just in his second year of crime-fighting, it wouldn’t make much sense to have him come across the Joker so soon. The Joker showing up in The Batman 3 would round out Pattinson’s trilogy and give the character the billing he deserves as the ultimate threat that Batman must face, allowing more anticipation in the process. In addition to all that, by protecting the Joker for the third movie, The Batman trilogy would be avoiding comparisons to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, which had Heath Ledger’s Joker as the villain in its second movie, The Dark Knight, and even more so if The Batman sets up Harvey Dent/Two-Face, who was also an antagonist in The Dark Knight.

Of course, the future of The Batman and the characters that could appear in potential sequels will depend on how the first movie performs and what it sets up, but surely, fans won’t lose hope in seeing this version of the Caped Crusader battling against yet another version of the Joker. What makes a potential appearance of the Joker so exciting is Reeves’ approach to Batman and the characters from its universe, and if he governed to make The Riddler truly menacing, his take on the Joker will surely be an interesting (and dark) one.