Although the DC Extended Universe’s relentless barrage of Jokers risks giving fans Joker fatigue, the franchise is currently in need of a new Clown Prince of Crime. Matt Reeves’ The Batman is about to introduce a new Bruce Wayne played by Robert Pattinson in a separate timeline from the previous DCEU entries, with its own incarnation of Gotham that will be subsequently fleshed out in a police procedural spin-off on HBO Max. It’s only been five years since the last reboot, but the character is so popular and the last attempt was such a mess that a do-over is still the best option.
Despite the widespread social media campaign to restore the SnyderVerse, it seems that Snyder’s take on DC’s shared cinematic universe won’t continue after Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The director himself has said he’s not interested in making more DC movies and he has plenty of non-DCEU projects on the horizon to focus on. So, unless Warner Bros. releases the Ayer cut of Suicide Squad, which seems unlikely, Jared Leto’s Joker is out. And if Joaquin Phoenix’s Oscar-winning Joker movie is just a one-off as promised, then he’s out, too.
From It’s Bill Skarsgård to Get Out’s Caleb Landry Jones, there are a few popular fan castings for the Joker floating around online message boards. One of the most prominent casting suggestions is Willem Dafoe, widely considered to be one of the world’s greatest actors since his star-making turn in Platoon. While it’s easy to point to Dafoe’s darker performances in movies like Antichrist and Wild at Heart as proof that he’d make a great Joker, one particular psychological thriller proves he’d be the ideal Joker for the DCEU’s new Batman specifically.
Robert Eggers’ claustrophobic psychological horror movie The Lighthouse stars Dafoe and Pattinson as a pair of lighthouse keepers isolated from the world on a remote island. Throughout the movie, tensions arise between the two as they’re stuck together, getting on each other’s nerves, leading to some truly shocking payoffs. Dafoe and Pattison developed an intense co-dependent dynamic in The Lighthouse that could be beautifully translated to the relationship between Batman and the Joker.
Whether Dafoe was wishing a “Promethean fate” on Pattinson or Pattinson was angrily complaining about Dafoe’s constant flatulence, the duo’s best scenes in The Lighthouse saw them in conflict together. There’s a scene in which Dafoe ominously places a sea curse on Pattinson because he didn’t like his lobster dish and doesn’t blink once throughout the entire speech. According to Eggers, this scene was shot in a single take and Dafoe went more than two minutes without blinking (and still managed to give a breathtaking delivery of the monologue). Dafoe and Pattinson are two incredibly talented actors, powerful scene partners for one another, and capable of going to very dark places – it would be great to see what they could do with the roles of Batman and the Joker.
If Dafoe is cast as the Joker, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d played an iconic comic book villain, as he also gave a terrific turn as the Green Goblin in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. While that incarnation of the classic Spidey villain was let down by his silly-looking Power Rangers armor, Dafoe gave an unforgettable performance as Norman Osborn. Dafoe’s unsettling portrayal of the character’s ominous visions of himself in the mirror play a little like a screen test for the Joker.
As it stands, the definitive on-screen portrayal of Batman and the Joker’s unique hero-villain dynamic (outside of Batman: The Animated Series and the Arkham games) is arguably Christian Bale and Heath Ledger in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Ledger’s Joker sums up the characters’ relationship perfectly when he says, “You complete me.” Throughout The Dark Knight, the Joker gets a kick out of messing with Batman. He knows that the Bat will do almost anything to protect Gotham, but he will draw the line at taking a life, so he uses that to pull elaborate, psychotic pranks on the masked crimefighter.
One aspect of Batman and the Joker’s relationship that has yet to be fully explored on-screen is its longevity. Michael Keaton’s Batman dispatched Jack Nicholson’s Joker after just one movie, but in the comics, Batman and the Joker have a longstanding feud incorporating years of bad blood. It’s a cat-and-mouse dynamic, with the elusive clown constantly escaping from the Caped Crusader’s clutches. With the “JOKE’S ON YOU” graffiti on Robin’s costume, Batman v Superman hinted at a long backstory between Ben Affleck’s grizzled, older Batman and Jared Leto’s weird, millennial, tattoo-covered Joker, but this was just an Easter egg to be explored in later sequels and those sequels never came to fruition.
With Reeves’ The Batman launching a brand-new Bat-verse on the big screen, Warner Bros. has the opportunity to explore Bruce Wayne’s ongoing rivalry with the Joker across a complex multi-movie arc. Pattinson already has impeccable proven chemistry with Dafoe following their work on The Lighthouse, and Dafoe would fit right into the gritty, noir-tinged Gotham that Reeves is creating. The actor got his big break in To Live and Die in L.A., William Friedkin’s neo-noir masterpiece.