Warner Bros. dropped the final trailer for the upcoming Joker film starring Joaquin Phoenix, and if Jared Leto’s portrayal of the Crown Prince of Crime wasn’t shaking in his boots already, I’d assume he’s now begun simply digging his own grave. Phoenix continues to put on a phenomenal show as the broken shell of the man who would become a legend, even just judging by his trailer performances, but we already knew that was the case from previous glimpses of this film. This time, it’s all about a man who’s all too familiar with falling on pavement, but hasn’t seen much of the spotlight; the ill-fated Thomas Wayne, portrayed by Brett Cullen.
Check out the trailer, then let’s discuss.
Batman’s parents being alive on-screen is just a little bit of a really big deal. We’ve never really seen Bruce’s parental units before that infamous night in the alley that we’ve seen approximately 12 billion times before, so it’ll be refreshing to see a side of his life before the cape and cowl through his father in Joker. It’s unknown whether Martha “Why Did You Say That Name” Wayne will be making an appearance alongside her husband, but we won’t have to wait long to find out, considering this film is right around the corner.
Thomas Wayne isn’t the only fresh content we’re seeing, though. Robert De Niro made a very prominent appearance in this trailer as Murray Franklin in a pretty direct homage to another film De Niro starred in. Joker actually pulls a lot from Martin Scorsese’s 1982 black comedy The King of Comedy, in which De Niro plays a mediocre, troubled comedian hoping to get his big break through a successful comedy show host. It seems that this time the roles have been reversed; the hopeful but failing Arthur Fleck is hopeful Franklin will help him get the attention he needs to get back into the game but instead is met with resistance and ridicule that only contributes to his transformation into Gotham’s most infamous villain.
Joker is confirmed to have no parallel comic book storylines, so really all we know right now is what the trailers have allowed us to see. That being said, the film’s out in theaters on October 4th, so we won’t have to wait too long to get the full picture.
