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Martin Scorsese is Making a Joker Origin Story Without Jared Leto

by Kyle Anderson
Aug 22 2017 • 4:13 PM

The DCEUOpens in a new tab has had a little bit of a hiccup getting out of the gate, it found something fans everywhere could get behind in this summer’s Wonder WomanOpens in a new tab. And though we’ll have to wait until November to form an opinion on  Justice LeagueOpens in a new tab, we at least know Warner Bros. is committed to giving their universe the ol’ college try, specifically in the Batman realm. Case in point: Tuesday’s news that there’s going to be a Joker origin story movie, directed by—of all people—The Hangover‘s Todd Phillips and produced by Martin ScorseseOpens in a new tab.Coming to us from DeadlineOpens in a new tab, their report has several details worth noting, the first being the personnel involved. Not only will it be directed by Phillips, it’ll be co-written by him and Scott Silver, whose credits include 8 Mile, The Fighter, and The Finest Hour, a wrap sheet that makes me ask “Why so serious?” But completing the trifecta is none other than the iconic Scorsese, a man who made his name from gritty, urban crime films in the 1970s and has kept making them ever since.

The other highly intriguing aspect is that this movie seems like it’ll be what DC Comics fans would call an “Elseworlds” story. While Sucide SquadOpens in a new tab‘s Jared Leto is still the official Joker in the DCEU — slated to appear in both that film’s sequel and in the Harley Quinn spin-off movieOpens in a new tab — this as-yet-untitled Joker movie would take place in the early 1980s and have a different lead actor, likely younger than Leto. And the Gotham City in this movie will evidently feel more like a Scorsese crime film than any DC film to date. So that’s nice and weird.No word yet on anything else about the project, and since it’s completely independent from the ongoing DCEU continuity, it won’t probably require too much shifting of existing slate of films. As much as I don’t think having an origin for the Joker is ever necessary, it’s been done a couple of times quite well, specifically in the animated Batman: Mask of the PhantasmOpens in a new tab which showed his gangster past without giving away any other information. The character could lose some of its mystique if we know too much about him, but if it’s an out-of-continuity movie, then we can have it both ways.Let us know what you think about this insane Joker movie in the comments below!

Images: Warner Bros

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist and an avowed DC Comics fanboy. Follow him on Twitter!Opens in a new tab

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