Colin Farrell Talks Barry Keoghan's Return as Joker for 'The Batman II'

Sorry, The Batman fans, Colin Farrell has nothing to do with Barry Keoghan’s possible return to the film franchise as The Joker.

“Nothing to do with me, that’s above my pay grade,” Farrell, 48, told Us Weekly and other reporters at The Penguin premiere in New York City on Tuesday, September 17. “Surprising as that sounds.”

Farrell and Keoghan, 31, have collaborated on multiple projects over the years (The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Banshees of Inisherin) and struck up a friendship offscreen as well. When it comes to The Batman franchise, both actors appeared in the 2022 movie but didn’t share the screen together.

Farrell, of course, took on the role of Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot, a.k.a The Penguin — for which he has his own Max series premiering on Thursday, September 19 — alongside Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne / Batman in The Batman. Keoghan, for his part, made a cameo as The Joker (credited as Unseen Arkham Prisoner) in a deleted scene from the film. Fans have hoped that Keoghan will reprise his role for the forthcoming The Batman sequel. However, Farrell has “no idea” what’s being planned for the next movie.

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“I haven’t read a single word of the second script,” the Irish actor told Us and reporters on Tuesday’s red carpet. “I know [director] Matt Reeves — who is creatively so diligent and so specific, and he’s just so detail oriented and loves the material — went through great pains to create the script for The Batman film.”

Farrell praised the director who “ put so much of himself into” into the superhero movie.

“He’s been busy toiling, creating the second film, and I can’t wait to see it,” he continued. “I heard I have a few scenes in it. That’s all I know.”

For now, Farrell is focused on The Penguin series — and what he told reporters was a “weird” transformation but “very powerful and “hypnotic” experience to become unrecognizable.

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“Have you ever seen cats look at themselves in the mirror? How they recoil and they just don’t know, it was strange,” Farrell explained at the premiere. “I knew I was in there. It’s not like I ever fully lost sense of myself, but it was a very powerful thing to know yourself a certain way for 45 years, and to see a reflection. It also kind of made me aware of how much I identified with how I look, more than I even would have thought I would.”

Reporting by Lexi Carson