Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Titans season 3, episodes 1–3

Titans season 3 marked the return of The Joker to DC television, albeit only glimpsed from a distance or abstractly — here’s the reason why he wasn’t allowed to make a proper appearance. In the lead-up to its release via HBO Max, story details that could have been big twists or comics-inspired surprises in Titans season 3 were made public. For starters, it was confirmed that Jay Lycurgo would play Tim Drake  (a.k.a. the third incarnation of Robin) in his live-action debut and Vincent Kartheiser would embody Jonathan Crane (a.k.a. Scarecrow). Finally, fans rejoiced with the advanced news that Curran Walters’ Jason Todd would officially become Red Hood.

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Ever since the news broke, fans wondered how faithful to the source material Jason Todd’s tragic fate would be. With the official release of Titans season 3, episode 1, “Barbara Gordon,” however, the answer was revealed to be very. In the mere opening minutes, Jason tracked The Joker’s location and, though ordered to stand down by Bruce Wayne (Iain Glen), attempted the apprehend him in a solo mission. While Jason Todd’s death differed from the comics in terms of location and setup, it nonetheless came courtesy of a crowbar swung by The Joker — rather than the hand of another famous Bat-villain, as some theorized may happen.

Any DC fans hoping for a fresh iconic (or controversial) take on the Clown Prince of Crime, however, were destined to be sorely disappointed. Rather than a full performance, fans were teased with an array of allusions to The Joker. As well as a version of his signature laugh, there were flashes of his green hair, purple attire, and his unique, face-stretching style of murder. The closest that the first episode of Titans season 3 offered to a full look at Joker’s terrifying visage was courtesy of a creepy puppet used to distract Jason. A similar method was deployed when The Joker, Batman, and other classic Bat-villains briefly appeared courtesy of a Trigon-influenced dreamscape in Titans season 1, episode 11, “Dick Grayson.”

Fitting with Titans season 3’s theme being fear, the main reason for the pattern was DC Entertainment’s continued concern about oversaturation. In recent years, The Flash helped to prove that TV and cinematic versions of a superhero can not only uniquely exist but even coexist in a crowd-pleasing fashion. That conceit will be further explored with the expansion of the DCEU multiverse. Warner Bros execs stated their belief that separate cinematic versions of Batman (played by Michael Keaton, Ben Affleck, and Robert Pattinson) and other characters can be accepted simultaneously by fans without issue. Regardless, though there’s been extra leeway in some cases, DC has continued to largely prohibit Batman and Joker from the small screen. As such, the continued expectation has been that the movie iterations will therefore feel more special and the respective franchise outings will remain a box office draw.

That was why shows like Smallville never featured Batman among its wider DC heroes. Equally, that was the reason why the writers had to dance around officially referring to Jerome or Jeremiah Valeska (Cameron Monaghan) as The Joker on Gotham. The Arrowverse has also struggled with the situation, which necessitated its Bruce Wayne (Warren Christie) only appearing indirectly and never suiting up. They further got around the issues by revealing that he had already killed his Joker and vanished. Now that Titans‘ Batman has beaten Joker to death and fled, the show has put itself in an identical position. As such, disappointing though it may be, any fans holding on to hope can officially let go and wait for future DCEU installments. Instead, the focus of Titans season 3 will remain strictly on the titular heroes and an exploration of the varying scars that Batman and Joker simply left in their wakes.

New episodes of Titans season 3 release every Thursday on HBO Max.

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About The Author


John Atkinson
(1009 Articles Published)

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John Atkinson has been a news and feature writer for Screen Rant since late 2018. Before that, he had articles published across a number of different outlets. A graduate of the University of London, John was raised on a small island by television and movies. As such, he pursued a career in screenwriting and film journalism when it became apparent that actually becoming Spider-Man was impossible. John’s fondest wish is to one day produce a film of his own. Until then, he’s more than happy to spend countless hours just talking about them.

John’s love of film and television defies genre and sometimes even logic. Nothing is off-limits to his passion – be it Marvel, DC, Rian Johnson’s Star Wars, or Tommy Wiseau’s latest cinematic offering.

Away from screens, John can often be found in a park reading mystery and/or fantasy novels, jumping up and down at various music events, or thinking too deeply about Keanu Reeves’ career and why Edgar Wright doesn’t have an Oscar.

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