Batman: Arkham Asylum - 10 Coolest Easter Eggs, Secrets And References Explained

6. Was Jason Todd In The Game All Along?

Batman Arkham Knight Jason Todd Robin
Rocksteady

Irrespective of whether or not this plot twist in Arkham Knight kind of... sort of... makes no sense (and especially not, if you believe what the tie-in comics tell you), it was a pretty cool revelation to discover that Joker had faked Jason Todd's death and had been keeping him hostage in a walled off part of the Asylum for years.

Joker's torture of Todd in the Arkham games borrows from both Death in the Family and the Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker animated film, and even though Asylum's writer Paul Dini wasn't involved in the story for Arkham Knight, if you go back to Arkham Asylum with the twist in mind, it almost seems like Rocksteady were planning it all along. Almost.

First off, Joker does actually reference Robin in Arkham Asylum - "What's it like in your organization? Do you punish your hired help when they fail? Or is that saucy outfit you make him wear punishment enough?"

The fact that Joker hid the Boy Wonder in the Asylum has also led fans to investigate whether or not they can find where he might be hiding, with some speculating that he was held somewhere near Doctor Young's office - around where Amadeus Arkham was once confined - or even in a different cell, with fans having noticed scrawlings that seemingly depict Joker masterminding the creation of the Red Hood. (Either that or Joker's origin as the Red Hood - it's hard to tell.)

There are some compelling theories out there that tie Joker's activity in Asylum with him trying to hide Jason, but nothing concrete for now. Of course, with Rocksteady being so good at hiding secrets, maybe there's a way to find the second Robin, and we just don't know it?

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.