The Batman: Every Rumour You Need To Know

1. Joker Might Be Connected After All

Love it or hate it, it looks as though Joker has a huge part to play in WB's plans going forward - whether that's its box-office success inspiring a new wave of self-contained comic book movies; or, perhaps less likely, it forming the foundations of Matt Reeves' new films.

Although this is more speculation on Hughes' behalf than outright fact (he prefixes this particular comment by confirming that Joker is "standalone" and that there's "no plan" for a follow-up), he does say that Joker's more ambiguous elements could lend themselves quite fittingly to a new world of Bat-films.

Without delving too heavily into spoiler territory, Joker strays very closely to Batman's origins in the third act, and the film's setting - a timeless, late seventies Gotham - means Reeves wouldn't have too much of a hard time incorporating Arthur Fleck's Joker into his trilogy of films.

Whether Bat-fans would want that is equally as uncertain - and indeed, this author wouldn't - but the door is by no means closed. Phoenix could bring his vaunted intensity to Reeves' films - and as WhatCulture's Simon Gallagher explains here - were WB to link the two projects together, it would pose a fascinating new legend of how Batman came to be.