Director Todd Phillips recently teased the start of production on his DC origin film Joker. Warner Bros. currently has several Joker movies in development; however, Phillips' film starring Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker is said to be an origin story taking place in the 80s, and will introduce Batman's nemesis as a failed comedian turned criminal.
The Joker has always been not only one of the most popular Batman villains, but one of the most successful supervillains in comic history. There have been several versions of the crazed clown in the pages of comic books, on television shows, and in Hollywood blockbusters. In Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger starred as the Joker, making the character even more famous than he'd already been. Since 2008 the character has continued to make appearances in TV shows and movies, most recently in Gotham on Fox, and in the antihero team up film Suicide Squad. Even though Jared Leto's version of the Clown Prince of Crime wasn't well-received, a Joker spinoff or origin story was still bound to happen.
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Taking to Instagram, Phillips posted a black and white photo of him surrounded by smoke. He captioned the photo with the short sentence, "Here we go" which could be a shout out to Ledger's iconic line in The Dark Knight. While it's possible this post could be for another one of his films, it's likely a tease for Joker, since the film is supposed to begin production soon. His full post can be seen below.
Phillips has mainly directed comedies during his career, including Old School and The Hangover trilogy. While Joker will likely be a departure from his usual comedic films, he could be a good fit for the DC movie, since the Joker usually has a dark sense of humor. Phillips will also likely have more creative freedom when crafting the film, since it isn't part of the growing DCEU. Apart from Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, and Marc Maron are all reported to have roles in the film.
While there are sometimes huge fan outcries when certain actors get cast in superhero and supervillain roles, that didn't happen with Phoenix being announced as the Joker. Even though there is more than one Joker movie in development, Phillips' film is intriguing since Joker could potentially be rated R and Phoenix has said he doesn't care about fan expectations, choosing to focus instead on the character and Phillips' vision. Regardless of DC's prior box office struggles, Joker could potentially be another step in the right direction for the superhero genre.
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Source: Todd Phillips/Instagram
