The wait is over. The question that’s been looming since Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne first locked eyes with that scarred, unsettling figure in Arkham has finally been answered, as Barry Keoghan is officially set to return as the Joker in Matt Reeves’ THE BATMAN: PART 2.

Keoghan’s original appearance in THE BATMAN was brief but unforgettable, showing up as an unnamed Arkham State Hospital prisoner whose grotesquely scarred face and menacing rapport with Pattinson’s Batman left audiences absolutely certain they were witnessing the early formation of something genuinely dangerous. Reeves himself described the character at the time as a “pre-Joker Joker,” a deliberately incomplete figure not yet the fully-formed villain audiences know, which made the prospect of a sequel appearance all the more loaded with possibility.

Keoghan won’t be the only formidable new addition to the villain lineup either. Sebastian Stan has been reported in a casting detailed enough to point toward him playing Harvey Dent, the Gotham district attorney whose descent becomes Two-Face, setting up what could be a significant arc across this chapter and beyond. Scarlett Johansson, making a notable leap from Marvel to the DC universe, has also been reported as joining the film in a mystery role, with speculation swirling around a character who functions as both villain and love interest.

With Keoghan now confirmed, the central question hanging over this Gotham chapter is no longer whether the Joker will appear, but how fully Reeves intends to unleash him, and what that unleashing looks like inside his grimy, grounded vision of the city.