The DC Entertainment movie slate is a strange beast to keep track of, with new projects being announced – or rumoured, at least – at a far quicker rate than the films actually come out.
From an outsider’s perspective, it looks like a scattershot approach to planning, and a lot of the movies that get announced don’t seem to get much further in development. It’s gotten to a point where, until a DC film actually starts shooting, we take its existence with a sizeable pinch of salt.
The Joker has been at the centre of quite a few of these announcements, to the extent that four separate projects featuring the iconic Clown Prince Of Crime are on the development docket at the same time. It’s quite a chaotic situation, which the Joker himself would probably enjoy laughing at.
We’re not sure which of these films will end up making it into cinemas, but still, here’s everything you need to know about all the Joker movies that are currently in development…
Suicide Squad 2
Jared Leto’s tattooed take on the Joker debuted in 2016’s Suicide Squad, and although that film garnered a fair bit of criticism, it also garnered a rather large stack of cash, and quite a lot of pre-release hype. Because of this, a sequel is happening, although the original film’s helmsman – David Ayer – is not leading the creative charge this time around.
Taking the lead this time will be Gavin O’Connor (writer of Brothers, director of The Accountant). He will write and direct Suicide Squad 2, and the news stories surrounding that announcement listed Jared Leto, Margot Robbie and Will Smith as the core returning cast members.
This makes narrative sense, of course, given that Suicide Squad ended with Smith’s Deadshot remaining imprisoned while Leto’s Joker busted Robbie’s Harley Quinn out of captivity. It’s unclear what the main plot of Suicide Squad 2 will be, but a direct conflict between the Joker and the eponymous Squad could be a fun way to go.
Suicide Squad 2 originally had a 2018 release date earmarked, but that has become impossible, given that it’s June now and it hasn’t even started shooting. The latest rumblings suggest that it will go into production in 2019, which could make a 2020 release a possibility. Warner Bros wouldn’t want to leave it much later than that, you’d assume, as a four-year gap between instalments is already quite long.
Leto, whose character was somewhat sidelined in favour of Cara Delevingne’s Enchantress last time out, will surely be hoping for more screen time and a bigger role to play than he had in the original Suicide Squad.
The Jared Leto solo movie
The latest update from the DC Entertainment camp came very recently, and it told us that Jared Leto is executive producing and starring in a standalone movie about his version of the Joker. The movie is apparently in very early stages of development.
Variety broke the news, and although there were no plot details to share, their article did say this about Warner Bros’ intentions for the film: “The studio’s idea is to expand on the world created by Suicide Squad and tie into future instalments of that property.”
It’s unclear at this stage whether Leto’s Joker film will be shot and released before or after Suicide Squad 2. That ending of Suicide Squad – with Harley and Joker reunited and set free – is such a blank slate that it could be used by either upcoming movie as a jumping off point. Suicide Squad 2 seems to be a bit further along in development – it has a director and writer, for instance – but that wouldn’t stop Warners and DC from juggling things around if they wanted to.
The next step that Leto’s Joker solo movie needs to take is establishing a creative team. When Variety broke the news about the movie’s existence, Leto was the only person listed as working on the film on either side of the camera. Warners will need to hire a writer and a director, or perhaps someone who can do both.
As for the timeline, we assume that the film will take place in the present day within the established continuity DC Extended Universe. Saying that, there’s no reason we couldn’t see flashbacks to other points in the Joker’s criminal career.
The Joaquin Phoenix origin movie
In August last year, a news story spread around the web that seemed to represent a huge creative shift for Warner Bros’ DC movies: Todd Phillips of The Hangover, Scott Silver of The Fighter and cinema legend Martin Scorsese were revealed to be working on a standalone Joker film, which will be completely unconnected to the main continuity of the DCEU movies.
Silver and Phillips are writing the script together, with Phillips in line to direct the subsequent feature. Scorsese is taking an executive producer role, with the crime classics on his CV – such as Mean Streets and Goodfellas – adding a huge amount of gravitas to the project.
Rumours quickly surfaced that these three filmmakers want Joaquin Phoenix to star as the Joker in their movie, which seems like a perfect casting when you consider his unhinged performances in the likes of I’m Still Here and Inherent Vice. Fan art, like the piece above by Boss Logic, has proven how well Phoenix gels with the character on a visual level.
It all went a bit quiet after that first wave of news and rumours, but Deadline went asking for an update after Leto’s film was announced, and they received confirmation from Warner Bros that the Phillips/Silver/Scorsese project is still in development as well. Further to that, Deadline were told that Joaquin Phoenix “is set to star”, which confirms those particular rumours.
Deadline’s insider contact also told them that the Joaquin Phoenix movie “will fall under a different DC origins cinematic banner, to separate it from the titles set during the current day.” This seems to confirm that the Phoenix-starring film will explore the origins of the Joker, without going anywhere near the DCEU continuity where Leto’s version of the character resides.
Again, there have been no release date clues for the Joaquin Phoenix Joker movie. It’ll be interesting to see whether or not it makes to screen before Leto’s project.
The Joker and Harley movie
Shortly after the Phillips/Silver/Scorsese/Phoenix project was first announced, Warner Bros and DC put out word that a two-hander movie was also in development. This film will focus on Leto’s Joker and Robbie’s Harley Quinn, the star-crossed nutters whose backstory was explored through flashbacks in Suicide Squad. The pair, as we keep mentioning, were reunited in the final frames of that particular movie. That’s an open-ended story beat that could be used to set up absolutely anything.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news about the Harley and Joker film, reporting that Glenn Ficarra and John Requa were in “final negotiations to pen and helm an untitled movie project centring on Batman villains Joker and Harley Quinn” as played by Leto and Robbie.
Ficarra and Requa have romantic stories on their résumé, including the TV show This Is Us and the movies Crazy Stupid Love and I Love You, Phillip Morris. Their take on the Harley and Joker pairing is described in THR’s article as “an insane and twisted love story. When Harry Met Sally on Benzedrine.”
Now that Leto is executive producing his own Joker movie, it’s unclear if this Harley and Joker movie is still in the pipeline. If it does still have a place in Warner Bros’ big DC planner spreadsheet, we have no clue where it lies on the schedule with regards to Suicide Squad 2 and Leto’s Joker project.
That brings us to four announced movies that will have the Joker in them, if they ever get made. There’s one for Phoenix to star in, and three for Leto. And that’s not to mention all the other DC projects that the Joker could make a surprise appearance in…
Any more for any more?
Margot Robbie, through her own production company, is developing a DC movie with Harley Quinn at its core. In April, Variety described it as a “girl gang” movie inspired by the Birds Of Prey comics, and reported that Cathy Yan was being courted to helm the project. Yan made her feature debut as the writer-director of Dead Pigs, starring Zazie Beetz, earlier this year.
Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, War For The Planet Of The Apes) is writing and directing a Batman trilogy. There hasn’t been an iron-clad announcement yet as to whether these films will take place in the DCEU or fall under their own banner. Nor has it been formally confirmed that Ben Affleck will be the one donning the cowl this time around.
Additionally, the post-credits scene of Justice League showed Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor and Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke meeting on a boat and deciding to form a team of their own, in opposition to the eponymous emergent super-team. It’s unclear if that was meant to be a tease for Justice League 2 (which doesn’t currently have a release date or a creative team) or something else entirely.
On top of the four Joker-centric movies that we know about, there is every chance that The Man Who Laughs could show up in some or all of these other films. If there’s a new villain team on the block, you think he’d get an invite. Likewise, it would be surprising if a three-part cinematic Bat-saga or a Harley Quinn spinoff made it to screen without a whiff of Mister J.
Of course, as Warners and DC continue to announce more films, we’ll be sure to keep you updated with all the latest news. And we’ll also keep you in the loop if/when any of these Joker projects gear up for production.
It’s hard to be optimistic about the DC slate when it seems like such a random collection of in-development projects, but, regardless of that, we’re hoping that some good movies eventually follow this scattershot era of umpteen announcements…