The first trailer for Joker arrived yesterday and caused a lot of DC fans to get insanely hyped for the upcoming origins movie for the Clown Prince of Crime. As always, though, there was a certain backlash against the film for its grim tone and standalone nature. One Batman lover who can’t wait for Joker, though, is actually a Joker himself – Mr. Mark Hamill.
The longtime voice actor for the Dark Knight’s nemesis shared the trailer on Twitter and made it clear that he can’t wait to see Joaquin Phoenix’s take on the iconic supercriminal. “A diabolically delicious character + a superb actor + a brilliant writer/director = YES PLEASE!!!” Hamill gushed, followed by a fitting jester emoji.
Though folks often forget to mention him because he’s never played the role in live-action, Mark Hamill has been a fan favorite for decades now, as he’s been portraying the Joker in everything from animated TV shows, movies and video games since the 1990s – not least in Batman: The Animated Series. He’s always been incredibly gracious to the other actors to play the part, too, even sticking up for the oft-derided performance by Jared Leto in Suicide Squad.
As alluded to above, Joker has drawn some ire from fans as it’ll lay-out an original backstory not drawn from the comics and separate itself from the wider DC universe. Those with problems with that second point might not have been paying enough attention to the trailer, though, which featured many nods to the Bat-mythos. Not least an appearance by Thomas Wayne and a possible cameo for a young Bruce to boot.
As for the first issue, those critics might be forgetting that The Dark Knight put its own twist on the Joker as well. From what we’ve seen so far, Todd Phillips’ Joker looks to be a highly unique comic book movie, merging the genre with the feel of a classic Scorsese flick. If it’s good enough for Mark Hamill, it’s good enough for us.
