Warner Bros. Joker Origin Film in the Works?

Warner Bros. Joker Origin Film in the Works?

Speculation Time

By Alex Burns

Deadline have reported that Warner Bros. are working on a stand-alone Joker film exploring the character's origins in 1980's Gotham City. The report also details that some pretty heavy hitters are attached to the project with Todd Phillips (The Hangover) to direct and pen the script with Scott Silver (8 Mile) and Martin Scorsese to produce.

A seriously interesting part of this whole reveal is the notion that this Joker origin film would be part of a new wave of DC Films from WB that take may take place outside of the DC Extended Universe or be very loosely connected, thus enabling other actors to play major roles and iconic characters.

Jared Leto played the most recent iteration of the Joker on-screen in 2016's Suicide Squad, Leto is set to reprise the role in Suicide Squad 2 and the Harley Quinn spin-off, Gotham City Sirens, all films connected to the current DCEU. This new Joker film could feature another actor in the lead role and with it being an origin film, you'd imagine a younger actor would be first choice.

Deadline details the setting of the film as follows: “the intention is to make a gritty and grounded hard-boiled crime film set in early-’80s Gotham City that isn’t meant to feel like a DC movie as much as one of Scorsese’s films from that era, like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull or The King Of Comedy.”

if this film becomes official it would join several other batman related projects in the works at Warner bros for the coming years including, Matt Reeve's solo Batman film (a proposed trilogy), Chris McKay's Nightwing film, Joss Whedon's Batgirl feature amd the already confirmed Gotham City Sirens with David Ayer returning to direct following his work on last year's Suicide Squad. That's a lot of Batman and it's certainly an exciting prospect on paper, however the on-going speculation over whether or not Ben Affleck will continue as Batman past the release of Justice League this year, casts a shadow of caution over how successfully these projects can work within or alongside the DCEU.

Does this sound like a project you'd be interested in? Let us know! We'll keep you updated on future developments right here at Cape and Cowl!

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