Despite the Joker being one of the most iconic comic book villains ever, there has never been a movie focused solely on the sinister DC character, until now. Later this year, we’ll finally see a movie about the Clown Prince of Crime. Joker is different from anything else in the current DC Extended Universe, and will be a departure from blockbusters like Wonder Woman and Aquaman. The film will alsosteer clear of the summer blockbuster movie scene. Instead, it’s set up as more of a character piece that will dig deeper into the man behind the Joker, along with a solid cast, including Robert De Niro. Helmed by Hangover director Todd Phillips and produced by Martin Scorsese, the film hits theaters this fall, just in time for Halloween. Here, we’ve compiled what we know, so far, about Joker.
Plot details haven’t been revealed much up until this point, but Joker is rumored to center around Arthur Fleck, a man who’s a struggling stand-up comedian that gets a bit psychotic after a series of terrible events. The movie, rumored to be set in the ’80s, is reportedly a much more realistic depiction of the character compared to Jared Leto’s Joker in Suicide Squad.
DC Comics fans have pointed to the 1988 graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke being the source material for the new Joker film. The novel was about a stand-up comedian, who lost his wife and gets strong-armed into committing a robbery. Fleck accidentally bleaches his skin stark white resulting in one extremely bad day that leads him to transforming into the Joker we all know.
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(L) Theo Wargo (M) Nicholas Hunt (R) Jacopo Raule / Getty
Cast
The Clown Prince of Crime will be played by Joaquin Phoenix, who has already picked up a Golden Globe (Walk the Line) and three Academy Award nominations. The cast will also be filled out by Robert De Niro and Zazie Beetz who is quickly making a name for herself following her appearance in the TV show Atlanta and Deadpool 2.
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Courtesy of Warner Bros. / IMDB
The Test Footage
To keep its mystery intact, Warner Bros. has been downplaying the marketing for the film. Official social media accounts haven’t been created for the film, but we did get some initial test footage of Phoenix as Fleck morphing into Joker, and several, on-set shots have been released as well.
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(L) Mondadori Portfolio (R) Frazer Harrison / Getty
Director & Producer
As if this film didn’t have high expectations already, the fact that director Martin Scorsese is its executive producer takes it to a whole other level. Additionally, the movie will be helmed by Todd Philips, director of Starsky & Hutch and all three of the Hangover films. .
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GC Images / Getty
Footage of the Joker Filming in New York
Joker was filmed in New York during the fall of 2018, and while the plot is still under wraps, we do get a chance to look at the villain’s suit and makeup. A closer resemblance to Heath Ledger’s Joker, rather than Jared Leto, it appears that the Joker will bring some havoc to the subways as well.
The Phoenix-led, solo Joker film finally released its first trailer, and it looks as dark and grim as you’d expect. In this brief bit of footage, we see glimmers of Fleck’s mental unraveling, as he’s driven to madness by a seemingly harsh, random world of violence around him. In addition to showing off the entire Joker costume, we also get to hear a few variations of the Clown Prince of Crime’s iconic laugh.
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Courtesy of Warner Bros. / IMDB
Todd Phillips Adjusted the Script on the Fly
One of the few bits of information we know about the filming process is that the original script for the film, co-written by Scott Silver and Philips, was heavily altered throughout the process of filming. “The script was great,” Beetz told MTV. “We rewrote the whole thing while we were shooting it. Literally, we would go into Todd’s trailer and write the scene for the night and then do it. During hair and makeup, we’d memorize those lines and then do them, and then we’d reshoot that three weeks later.”
Beetz also mentions a possible reason for the alterations can be attributed to the physical condition of Phoenix. To completely embody the Joker, he slimmed down for filming to a weight that wasn’t healthy for his long term health, ruling out the potential for reshoots.
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Courtesy of Warner Media
DC Extended Universe
Depending on how you feel about the current situation of the DC Extended Universe, you’ll either be thrilled or heartbroken to learn that this film will not be connected to any of those movies, according to DC Creative Officer Geoff Johns. Fans of Leto’s Joker will see him again in a rumored Suicide Squad sequel, and an untitled movie about Joker and Harley Quinn.
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Courtesy of Warner Bros. / IMDB
The Release Date
Joker will hit theaters October 4, according to IMDB, and is projected to net between $600 to 920 million worldwide.
