At the beginning of April the official trailer for JOKER starring Joaquin Phoenix was released. The excitement is palpable as we’re marking our calendars to its premiere on October 4th 2019.
This film will present the Joker as failed comedian Arthur Fleck, a name never before seen in any Batman media. The film is planned to take a number of creative liberties with the character as the true nature of Joker’s origin is still unknown to even the most attentive super fans. Currently, the only one Joker origin story from the pile has defined the popular imagination. That is the 1988 Batman: The Killing Joke. A one-shot comic that showed how a struggling comedian was tricked into being a fall guy. This led to a horrible accident that turned “Jack” into a psychotic villain.
More of, the film dates back to 1981. This means that it is placed safely outside the current DC cinematic universe which gave greater creative freedoms to the writers. In fact, rather than a classic hero/villain origin story the film is said to be more of a gritty crime thriller.
An interesting theory is that this Joker might not be the one to eventually face Batman. Arthur Fleck is roughly forty years old at the time of the film. That would make him too old to face Bruce Wayne in the here and now. This theory of Arthur Fleck as a precursor to the modern day Joker portrayed by Jared Leto leaves room for both Jokers to coexist as Leto is still set to star in his stand alone Joker movie.
Joker is set to deliver all that we love about villains:
- Complexity
As the film is more of low-budget gritty character study, it is expected to deliver on complexity. Even the trailer taps into Arthur’s seemingly unhealthy relationship with his mother, his infatuation with a single mother, social unrest and mental illness amongst other topics. - Costume
Most people noticed the nod to Joker’s classical wardrobe and make-up as portrayed in several comics, during the last scene of the trailer. - Unpredictability
Speaking of the last scene of the trailer, Joker seems particularly happy and victorious. Why?
For some of us perfection can be boring. Not only do Joker, Lex Luthor and the Red Skull run unconstrained by conventional morality, they exist outside the limits of reality itself. Their evil, even at its most realistic, retains a touch of the unreal. There is a general fascination with villains, and the Joker is one of the most iconic. Hopefully October will come quickly.
