Matt Reeves plans to release bonus Batman scene

Matt Reeves cut a scene from 'The Batman' of the titular character meeting Joker - but intends to release it soon.

The director shot footage where Robert Pattinson's Caped Crusader snuck into Arkham Asylum to speak with one of the inmates but ultimately felt the ideas behind the moment were accomplished elsewhere so dropped the scene.

Matt explained how Batman went to Arkham in a bid to better understand the Riddler (Paul Dano) by meeting with Joker (Barry Keoghan).

He told The Hollywood Reporter: “And this guy says, ‘It’s almost our anniversary, isn’t it?' You realise that they have a relationship, and that this guy obviously did something, and Batman somehow got him into Arkham."

Batman tells Joker he wants to know how Riddler thinks, and Matt said his foe replied: “What do you mean, you want to know how he thinks? You guys think the same.”

He added: “What he’s really doing is getting into Batman’s head. And [Batman] is resisting this idea violently. And so that’s what that scene was. It was a scene to unsettle him.

“It wasn’t necessary, It was one of those scenes where, given how complex the narrative was, by taking it out, it kept the story moving in a way it needed to.”

Matt loved the "creepy, cool" scene and plans to share it with fans once enough people have seen 'The Batman'.

He said: “It’s a really creepy, cool scene. That was the scene that was meant to introduce this guy and just to tease the audience to go like, ‘Oh my god, he’s here too? And he’s not yet the Joker — what’s this going to be?’ And then it seems so delicious in the story, since we’d already set him up, to have the end of the story, the completion of the Riddler arc, be that he was in a cell next to this guy.”

Although Barry appears as Joker in a brief scene towards the end of the movie, the director insisted that isn't a tease for a sequel.

He said: “I never was trying to say like, ‘Hey, guess what, here’s the Joker. Next movie!'

"The idea was more to say, ‘Hey, look, if you think that trouble is going to go away in Gotham, you can forget it. It’s already here. And it’s already delicious.'

“It’s not an Easter egg scene. t’s not one of those end credits Marvel or DC scenes where it’s going, like, ‘Hey, here’s the next movie!’ In fact, I have no idea when or if we would return to that character in the movies."