I honestly keep forgetting the Joaquin Phoenix has signed on to be “the new Joker” in a stand-alone Joker film. It’s meant to be, like, an origin story for the Joker, because bitches love origin stories, right? Lord help us, at least it’s not another Batman origin story, although I’m sure another one of those will be coming up soon. But I’ve never seen a portrayal of the Joker and thought “I’d like to know more about his young adulthood!” The power of the Joker is that there’s so little backstory… the exception being Jack Nicholson’s portrayal in Tim Burton’s Batman, I guess. And I’m sure the DCU devotees will tell me that of course there’s a large canon of Joker backstory, etc. But I’m just saying: we don’t need this bloody movie.
Still, we’re getting this bloody movie. And Joaquin seems intent on playing the Joker as some kind of… whatever. I was going to call him a “proto-hipster” but God knows. The vibe I’m getting is “slacker from the ‘90s.” And yes, the Joker’s original name was Arthur. So here’s your first look at Arthur/Joker from director Todd Phillips’ Instagram.
At Comic-Con, Warner Bros announced that Joker will be released in October 2019. Obviously, Warner Bros confirms that Joker will have a “dark tone” and will be an “exploration of a man disregarded by society that is not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale.” That literally describes like 85% of the films made by Hollywood these days.
Here are some photos of Joaquin at the Toronto International Film Festival a few weeks ago. He looks like he’s lost a lot of weight rather quickly. I guess it’s for this role?
Photos courtesy of WENN, Instagram.
Look, I have lots of fond memories of young Joaquin Phoenix (such a crush on him in Inventing the Abbots), but dude is just way too old for an “origin” movie.
And god Wikipedia tells me he’s only 43. That’s a rough 43.
Wow. I have a close friend his age, heavy smoker since he was a teenager. He doesn’t look anything close to this “rough”.
Rapid weight loss. A co-worker lost huge amount of weight after colon surgery and he aged drastically. He reminded me of that recent Jet Li viral photo.
Yeah I dunno. The weight loss doesn’t help, but he’s looked 10/15 years older than his actual age since the I’m Still Here days.
He’s an amazing actor, should have won a Best Actor Oscar by now. So I’ll give him a chance in this, but the casting is off.
I’ve never pictures the joker to be young though, even Heath, he came off as a middle aged guy.
Wow, that’s a shock to me too–but on the other hand, he does and always has had a face that looks older than its years. It’s just the way his bones are. He’s like the inverse of Selena Gomez.
Damn, those photos from Toronto International Film Festival are scary! He looks… peculiar, yes?
He looks like Steve Jobs in that one shot.
The caption says Arthur?
Snap.
Fixed it. I’m having a terrible day, my bad.
My bet is that his mother will be a monster. It is all mom’s fault.
The movie is about the joker as a young adult and they picked Joaquin Phoenix…? Sorry, but he’s looking older than he actually is at this point.
I’m really over superhero/villain movies. I enjoyed Black Panther but that’s the first one I watched in at least 5 years because I’m so sick of them.
DC is really on the game to embarass themselves by overworking the characters. Heath Ledger was the best Joker, stop trying to make this happen! DC made a good trilogy with Christopher Nolan, they should let it rest and move on to new characters.
I agree. I remember when Heath Ledger was cast as the joker and a lot of people were like, WTF? And he nailed that role! He was spectacular. Nobody is gonna top that performance as the Joker. Nobody. So please stop trying.
Nobody, except Jack Nicholson.
Man, did age hit him like a train. Geez.
I want to meet the person who thinks the Joker is a good character for a standalone film. The whole point is that he’s a Batman foil. He can’t work without him. At least when they adapted Moore’s “From Hell,” they knew better than expecting a villain protagonist to translate to screen and used a different character.
Actually there isn’t much on the Joker backstory. That’s always kinda been the point that he is just anarchy for anarchy’s sake. In recent stories actually Batman sat on the Möbius chair and discovered here are three Jokers. They haven’t really explained much beyond that last I checked. So basically an origin story goes against much of what the Joker stands for in the comics so the fan boys will probably hate this.
Well…for me, personally…I STILL haven’t seen a Joker on the screen that TOUCHES the Joker in the animated series…(or hell, even the one in my head) I can’t with Jack’s or Heath’s or Jared’s interpretation …so BRANG IT DC…it can’t do any harm…I mean…NOTHING they do at this point can be any worse than what they’ve done….
And Joaquin is one of those folks where being thin = looking gaunt = looking old…
100% agree.
He looks like Billy Crudup to me. I guess there is a reason they were brothers in ‘Inventing the Abbotts’….
I can’t believe I once found him hot. (That ended when he did his weird fake movie with Casey Affleck.)
“Arthur” looks like Javier Bardem from the movie No Country for Old Men!
Wow, he looks so unwell! He was so insanely hot in Quills!!