Sheesh. It’s like DC is the gift that keeps on giving. Not only does it feel like there’s a new DCEU film announcement every other week, but now the latest report is that there will be a standalone Joker movie, produced by Martin Scorsese and written by Todd Phillips, no less. This Clown Prince of Crime solo outing won’t involve Jared Leto, however, as it’ll explore the origins of a much younger Mr. J in a gritty, crime drama. But this doesn’t mean that Leto’s hung up the purple coat, as he’s purportedly still signed on for Gotham City Sirens and Suicide Squad 2. Wait, what?
Did Barry just go back in time and screw everything up again? Seriously, this sounds almost too outrageous to be true, as if someone from Reddit pulled the troll of the month on all of us. But make no mistake about it, a Joker origins film is indeed happening and though we don’t have any idea yet of who the studio may be looking at to play the iconic role, a number of wish lists have started to surface.
Not only that, but a few actors are beginning to throw their hat into the ring as well and the latest to do so is none other than Death Note star Lakeith Stanfield. Taking to Twitter this weekend, the actor expressed his interest in the part to Scorsese with the following Tweet:
https://twitter.com/lakeithlakeith/status/901461648464003072
Admittedly, Stanfield would be an interesting choice for the Joker. He impressed recently in the aforementioned Death Note and he’s certainly a talented individual. Whether or not this will lead anywhere remains to be seen of course, but the studio would be wise to at least consider him. That being said, we’re still not so sure if this origins film is really that great of an idea.
First and foremost, the character’s history is meant to be vague. The mystery is what appeals to us, since we don’t know much about who he is or where he came from. He could’ve been a friend of Bruce Wayne’s from childhood, or a distant cousin of Commissioner Gordon, or he could’ve just been a nobody who had one really bad day. That’s what makes him so interesting: he represents the darkest part of the human soul. A backstory proves to be unnecessary here because we can all relate to how anyone could snap on any given day.
Really, the only way we can see a Joker origin movie working is if it plays out with an unreliable narrator and we’re never quite sure if it’s actually true or not. If the film does pan out like that, then we’ll gladly eat a slice of humble pie and admit that we were wrong about this whole thing. Until then, we’ll still have our doubts.
