Standalone Joker origin movie gets official title, release date from Warner Bros.

The oft-rumoured self-contained Joker origin movie has recently been confirmed as real by Warner Bros. and DC, and it appears that the studio is eager to get it going. After securing lead star, Joaquin Phoenix to play the titular role, the movie appears to be all set to enter production too!

Just ahead of San Diego Comic-Con’s commencement tomorrow, Warner Bros. has announced that the Joker origin movie is officially and simply titled ‘Joker‘, and will release in theatres on October 4th, 2019. Joker will thus join Shazam! and Wonder Woman 1984 as one of next year’s big screen DC Universe-inspired movie releases. Unlike those two other movies however, Joker will not take place within the shared DC Extended Universe that serves as the backdrop for most of DC’s recent live-action film offerings, nor will it inhabit any established DC canon to come before, film or otherwise. Instead, Joker is believed to be being released under a separate film banner that will firmly announce it as being wholly separate from the DCEU movies to audiences, with the rumoured offshoot brand potentially being called ‘DC Black’.

Details are scarce for Joker at this point, with the entire cast aside from Phoenix’s Clown Prince of Crime being a complete mystery for now. The movie is however confirmed to be set in the 1980’s (ironically, it’s not the only DC movie taking place in that decade next year, since Wonder Woman 1984 will also explore that era for the main DCEU canon), and is believed to be targeting an R-rating, which will be another thing firmly separating it from the currently-PG-13-exclusive DCEU. The Hangover trilogy director, Todd Phillips will be directing Joker, with Phillips also co-writing the movie’s script with The Fighter scribe, Scott Silver. All that is known about the storyline of Joker at present is that it will be a gritty character study for the titular villain, as well as something of a cautionary tale, centering around a man disregarded by society.

The Joker, as a character, of course needs no introduction. Since his creation and debut in 1940’s comic book, Batman #1, The Joker has become one of the most recognized and celebrated villains not just in comic books and superhero media, but in fiction overall. In most cases, The Joker serves as the unpredictable, insane and highly dangerous arch-nemesis of the equally recognized and celebrated DC superhero, Batman, though it doesn’t currently appear that Batman will be a part of Joker in any capacity. The Joker has no actual superpowers, but he is nonetheless one of the most dangerous earthbound threats in the entire DC Universe, having a seemingly superhuman intelligence quotient, an infinite capacity to cause mayhem and destruction with a seemingly unending supply of manpower and resources, and a chilling charisma that has made him a natural leader to other like-minded criminals, to the point where even the entire Justice League ensemble, let alone Batman, has found The Joker to be quite a fearsome foe!

Jared Leto currently portrays The Joker in the shared DCEU film canon, where he debuted the character in 2016’s Suicide Squad, and, compounding the potential confusion, an entirely separate Joker movie that will star Leto’s Joker has recently entered development for the main DCEU line of movies, according to several reports. The Joker has been portrayed in live-action on many other occasions as well, namely by the late Cesar Romero in ABC’s 1960’s Batman television series, as well as its 1966 cinematic offshoot, Batman: The Movie, Jack Nicholson in 1989 movie, Batman, the late Heath Ledger in 2008 movie, The Dark Knight (which won Ledger a posthumous ‘Best Actor’ Oscar), and in a slightly altered take by Cameron Monaghan in FOX’s ongoing television series, Gotham.

Keep terrorizing Eggplante for all major news and updates on Joker, and other DC movie projects.