A 5-minute deleted scene just posted online for cinema blockbuster “The Batman” creates a post-premiere wave of publicity and, more importantly, sets up a sequel movie and TV series for fans of the comic book-adaptation franchise.
The posted polished scene that is not in the PG-13-rated movie is dark and visually blurry. In it, Batman (portrayed by Robert Pattinson) interrogates The Joker (actor Barry Keoghan), though it’s super-villain The Riddler who takes center stage in the movie.
“The Batman” has grossed $317 million at the domestic boxoffice (and still rising) after premiered three weeks ago on March 4 in the U.S./Canada. The Warner Bros. Pictures release has grossed 617 million worldwide, when adding overseas cinema ticket sales. That’s excellent since cinema is still digging out of the Covid pandemic.
“As with Marvel’s famous post-credit scenes and bonus footage released to the internet, the deleted ‘The Batman’ scene sets up the next film while the original film is still making money at the box office,” says an article by Frank Pallotta on CNN.com.
Warner Bros., like CNN, is owned by WarnerMedia, which also owns DC Comics that is the home of Batman. Meanwhile, Marvel is the rival comic book business owned by Walt Disney Co..
The fanboy ecosystem jumps on the Warner marketing initiative with comments and videos peppered across cyberspace. For example, a 10-minute video posted on YouTube via a branded video feed from Emergency Awesome offers analysis of movie clips and commentary (watch out for “spoilers” if you haven’t seen the film!). The commentary is the back-half of the 10-minute post.
Two days after Warners posted the deleted scene, the Emergency Awesome video has about 240,000 views on YouTube. Emergency Awesome’s mysterious front-man also goes by the name of Charlie.
Dark and blurry, Batman interviews The Joker in jail — a deleted scene stoking movie fanboy interest.
As for the mystery and twist, “the scene crescendos with Joker taunting Batman with the unsettling truth that there’s a part of him that agrees with Riddler’s decision to dispatch Gotham leaders who are mired in corruption,” says Adam B. Vary writing in trade newspaper Variety.
The buzz around the deleted scene is that is contains Easter Eggs, which are hidden message or feature embedded in online content. For example, a sharp-eyed viewer notes that three bundles of paper files handed by Batman to The Joker in the deleted scene mysteriously become two files after an exchange.
“In the clip, shared on TikTok, the viewer points out there are three paper clips on the file Batman hands to his enemy under the secure prison window,” writes Emily Brown in Unilad, which is a youth culture-focused website in the United Kingdom. “When the Joker returns the file, however, there are only two paper clips attached. The viewer suggests the Joker must have stolen one of the paper clips at some point during the exchange, speculating he may then go on to use this ‘either to kill one of the guards or break out of Arkham Asylum altogether.’ ”
Golly gee! Is this foretelling a prison breakout!
Another mystery is why long scenes like this one get cut from this movie. Without it, “The Batman” is a sprawling movie with a 2 hour-56 minute running time, which is nearly twice as long as the 90-minute minimum used to define what is a feature film.
But it’s suggested the deleted scene is was planned all along to keep publicity flames burning after premiere and also the footage could be inserted in future content from the studio in its Batman franchise.
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