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We’re currently living in The Golden Age of superheroes, with basically every single comic book character besides Squirrel Girl getting their own movie or television show over the past few years. A lot of these productions have showcased heroes and villains who’ve never appeared on screen before, but plenty of them have been reboots, reboots of reboots, and reboots of reboots of reboots of franchises being milked for profit like Sean Williams Scott in Road Trip.
Last year, Warner Bros. announced Martin Scorsese would be producing a movie providing a gritty look at The Joker’s origin story in an attempt to make the world forget Suicide Squad ever happened. Early reports said longtime Scorsese collaborator Leonardo Di Caprio was the front-runner to play the villain, but it appears there’s a new contender for the lead role.
Variety reports Joaquin Phoenix has tentatively agreed to play The Joker, a character who was most recently portrayed by Jared Leto in a performance that finally answered the question of what it would look like if a murderous psychopath had a day job as a manager at Spencer’s Gifts. Gary Oldman previously said he’d pick the actor to be the successor to Ben Affleck’s Batman, but it appears he’s opted to go in the other direction.
There’s no doubt Phoenix will head into the production knowing he’ll have to try to live up to the standard set by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, but based on his past ability to portray a crazy person both on screen and in real life, I have faith that he won’t disappoint.