Now this is truly something no one asked for. This upcoming Joker film aims to be the origin story of one of the most iconic villains of all time, despite all evidence pointing to A) No one wanting to know who the Joker was before he was the Joker, B) Fans already getting that in the story "The Killing Joke" and C) Origin films of iconic villains always crapping the bed. The icing on the cake is that the film is being directed and co-written by by Todd Phillips. "Todd Phillips...?" you might be saying right now... that sounds familiar, don't I know him? Well, you sure do. The man who will be handling the origin of the Joker is the same guy that gave us the Hangover trilogy. In his defense, he also gave us Old School, which was spectacular.
The film will be the first movie in a series of DC flicks that are separate from the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), so one-offs, like the Elseworld comic books, if you're familiar. These books have Batman turned into a vampire, had Batman fighting Jack the Ripper, becoming a samurai and so on, which usually end up being a lot of fun for the writers. The film, set in 1981, follows Arthur Fleck, a failed stand-up comedian who is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City and eventually becomes the Joker.
The Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker, along with Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Bill Camp, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Glenn Fleshler, Douglas Hodge, Marc Maron, Josh Pais, and Shea Whigham, and will release this October.
