Get ready to say hello to an all-new incarnation of Batman’s most infamous foe.
Warner Bros. just dropped our first look at Todd Philips’ Joker, an origin story re-imagining how a normal man, named Arthur Fleck, descends into darkness to be reborn as the titular villain—this time played by Joaquin Phoenix, and not Jared Leto, who’s Joker has an at-best mildly confusing future in the DC Universe with the arrival of this movie.
This is, really, outside of a few pictures, our first tangible look at just what Joker is going for...and even then, we still don’t know much, like how the film’s take on the Wayne family will factor into Arthur’s downfall, although we do get some brief glimpses, as well as a very fleeting look at Zazie Beetz’s mysterious character. But this trailer is more about establishing a tone for Joker than it is really delving into plot—about how an increasingly degrading Gotham city warps one man into one of its most infamous villains.
We’ll no doubt get a lot more on Joker (which also stars Robert De Niro, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, and Marc Maron) soon—after all, it’s hitting theaters in just six months, on October 4.
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