I think the other reason they cut the scene is because the dialogue so heavily predicts a LOT of what later gets revealed about the Riddler: that this is a personal vendetta dating back to childhood, that he's a fan of Batman (not a hater), and even that there's a ton of overlap between the Riddler and Batman's mindsets.  By including this scene in the actual movie, all of those plot points would feel less impactful, making the final act much weaker as a result.

This reminds me a lot of the sequence in The Long Halloween where Batman profiled the Holiday Killer with Calendar Man in addition to the obvious Silence of the Lambs parallels. I loved it.

This scene is absolutely epic but I’m extremely grateful it was cut from the film. The reveal that the riddler thought he was working with Batman the whole time was such a surprising subversion and completely blind sided me. I think this scene may have hinted too strongly at that and it may have lost some of the impact on a first viewing. Either way, I am very excited for more joker and Batman.

Just the way Barry Keoghan delivers the line, "Have you read this file" stays with me the whole time I'm watching the scene. I don't understand why yet, but every time I see the scene and get to that part I rewind it over and over again.

Loved the fact that Joker stole the paperclip off the folder without drawing attention to it.

That would have made for an amazing “oh shit,” moment when you see him slip off his cuffs in his cell (and most likely brutalize a guard and take his uniform in the process).

“He may be a fan, or he may have a grudge against you”
Love that both of those are right, Riddler’s a fan of Batman, but has a grudge against Bruce Wayne

This looks so good, the psychological horror behind this joker is amazing.

Who is back after the latest Joker movie.

I loved the scene where he said to batman ‘’aaw, you afraid he makes you look soft?’’ The way he delivered that line and laughed after actually made me laugh aswell lol. Really like his take ok the Joker, you can tell he has more of a heath take of the character aswell.

I love how broken he looks. The layers on this Joker must be completely insane.

The screentests for the film had one with both of the Joker scenes on and another without the scenes and they ultimately decided for the version where they kept the second scene and removed this one which I think is the right call. This scene happens early on in the film after the second victim and not only does he pretty much predict the whole thing and actually succeed in profiling Riddler but it also takes away from the second scene later on where he would have been revealed. It also kind of diminishes the shock Batman feels (and what we, the audience, would feel) when he realizes Riddler's motivations since the Joker pretty much already told him. This was a fantastic scene but removing it was the right call and I'm kind of hoping it's not canon. The film didn't need it and nothing in the final cut felt like a piece was missing anyway.

“It’s not about some version where he falls into a vat of chemicals and his face is distorted, or what [Christopher] Nolan did, where there’s some mystery to how he got these scars carved into his face,” he says. “What if this guy from birth had this disease and he was cursed? He had this smile that people stared at that was grotesque and terrifying. Even as a child, people looked at him with horror, and his response was to say, ‘Okay, so a joke was played on me,’ and this was his nihilistic take on the world.” - Matt Reeves

This scene reminds me why I love the Joker. Just like Batman, there are so many ways you can take the character and it will still be true to the character. He can be a mobster, a deadly prankster, or the psychopath (or all three!). He's just so versatile and fascinating! I can't wait to see more!

This scene was so good bc it characterized batman rlly well thru his relationship w joker. It’s almost like a toxic relationship, where batman clearly has this connection to the joker, and there’s a mutual respect that isn’t there w other villains in the movie, but he knows it’s wrong.

Dang, it didn’t even take a second for me to wait until clicking here.

But yes, Barry is chilling. Imagine seeing this Joker in real life…scarier than Heath to be honest.
Better? Not sure. But this is a FREAKY Joker, and I’m loving Matt Reeves’ vision.
The man understands BATMAN.

I didn’t really like that we were getting yet ANOTHER cinematic Joker, as Batman has a whole slew of villains the movies could use, but this deleted scene made me change my mind a bit. This Joker has potential.

I think the reason they didn’t include it is that you can’t tease Joker earlier in the movie and not expect him to come in a big way later on in the movie! We would all just be waiting for the joker to show up again in the finale. It would undermine the riddler in the movie quite a bit

I think the scene was likely cut out so that the focus could stay on The Riddler and the rest of the story. I think if this scene was in the middle of the movie, it would have been too distracting and audiences would have been thinking "OMG they're doing The Joker again" rather than focusing on the story this film was telling. I liked the scene, but think it was wise to leave it out.

It was a good scene and I loved the way this Joker looks. He looks like fell into a vat of chemicals, and Barry's interpretation of the character was fantastic. My take on it is that Joker has been in Arkham for a year at this point. The fact that Batman goes to him for some insight, shows that Batman considers this Joker to have above average intelligence. It was great.

I really like this sense of the joker, dude playing him did a really good job. I just hope that they build up to the joker and don’t just make him the villain of the sequel. It would be cool if Batman comes to joker more and more which is what allows him to escape and sets up the final movie