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DC's Multiverse Means Pattinson's Batman Can Fight Phoenix's Joker
DC will reportedly introduce the multiverse in 2022, fundamentally changing the DCEU and potentially setting up a fight between Robert Pattinson's version of the Dark Knight in The Batman and Joaquin Phoenix's Joker. Big things are in the works over at DC, which looks to be preparing a full-frontal assault on long-time rival Marvel. After an array on underwhelming superhero efforts, the company seems to have been reinvigorated by 2019's Joker and looks to be shaking things up with its forthcoming movies.
Reports suggest things are about to get really interesting, with Warner Bros. and DC said to be preparing the debut of a cinematic multiverse in 2022's The Flash. Such a development would mean the DCEU would no longer be restricted to a singular timeline, allowing for multiple realities to exist simultaneously. The most exciting news to emerge thus far has been that Michael Keaton could be in talks to reprise his role as Batman in The Flash. The veteran actor's appearance would be made possible by the introduction of the multiverse and would be an entirely separate character from the version Robert Pattinson is set to portray in 2021.
Among the most intriguing crossovers the multiverse could make possible is a face-off between Robert Pattinson's Batman and Joaquin Phoenix's Joker, which debuted in his own self-contained story last year. While Joker wasn't without its share of controversy, Phoenix's Oscar-winning performance was widely praised by both fans and critics, and the movie itself marked a departure for DC and Warner Bros., which had previously struggled to establish a shared universe akin to Marvel's MCU. Joker was a departure from the "replicate the MCU but with DC characters" strategy as it was an entirely separate story that had no connection to Zack Snyder's Justice League or its various offshoots. But with the multiverse potentially set to introduce the concept of multiple concurrent timelines, there's no reason why Phoenix's Joker couldn't show up in future DCEU movies, making his rendezvous with Pattinson's Batman a definite possibility.
Matt Reeves' upcoming reboot The Batman shares much in common with Joker, in that it's said to be a self-contained narrative, existing within its own reality away from the wider DCEU. The Batman is shaping up to be noirish detective tale, establishing a more grounded Gotham with Pattinson's younger Dark Knight still settling into his crime-fighting career. Paul Dano's Riddler promises to provide the version of the villain fans have been waiting for, alongside Colin Farrell's Penguin as the backup rogue. With Zoe Kravitz also onboard as Catwoman and a new D.A. character played by Peter Sarsgaard, Reeves has a lot to juggle already – making an appearance of Phoenix's Joker highly unlikely in The Batman.
That said, there's already speculation about how The Batman could set up Arthur Fleck's Joker for a sequel, even if the film's central narrative doesn't include him. A post-credits sequence provides an easy space to tease the cross-over, which likely won't happen until way after The Flash has debuted and the concept of the multiverse has been well-established. That said, both The Batman and Joker embrace a grittier, more realistic aesthetic, which would conceivably make the potential melding of the two feel that much more natural.
With the multiverse, DC will have an easy way to make sense of such a crossover. The multiverse is said to span the entirety of DC's on-screen properties, both present and past. That means even characters and plots from the Arrowverse TV shows could show up in DCEU movies - a development already teased in the Crisis On Infinite Earths TV event when Ezra Miller's Flash made a brief appearance. Perhaps a similarly momentous event is being planned for a post-Flash future, in which all-manner of cinematic DC characters will appear - Phoenix's Joker included. Whether audiences will in fact see Pattinson's Batman take on Phoenix's Joker remains unclear, but of all the potential cross-overs the multiverse could bring, this feels like the least far-fetched.
