The Joker Shouldn't Have an Origin Movie

Of all the news superhero motion-picture show fans have been anticipating about the ever - helter-skelter state of Warner Bros DC Extended Universe feature , " Martin Scorseseproducing a Joker blood moviefrom the author / director ofThe Hangover"was plausibly never on the tilt until it suddenly became a reality . surely , from sure angle it makes sense : Among his many celebrated contributions to New cinema , Scorsese set the templet for the modern " life tale of a criminal scumbag " genre withGoodfellasand subsequent film likeCasinoandThe Wolf of Wall StreetwhileHangovermaestro Todd Philips patently has an affinity for men - behaving - badly in a more comedic sense , he ’s recently stepped into more striking district with the ( very)Wolf of Wall Street - esqueWar Dogslast year . Even still , the news ( which is , obviously , unrelated to Warner Bros ' previously - announced plans forJoker Vs Harley Quinn picture ) has to come as something of a shock even to folk who ’d happily watch nothing butBatman - link up movies all year long . The Joker is arguably DC ’s most noted ( and sure enough most popular ) baddie , but he ’s also try among the most culturally - sacrosanct to fans and among the most unmanageable to conform . It was widely assumed that Jack Nicholson ’s celebrated performance from Tim Burton ’s 1989Batmanwould persist inconceivable to top until consultation get their first looking at at Heath Ledger ’s rendering in Christopher Nolan’sThe Dark Knight . Then , with Ledger ’s tragic demise mere months before the motion picture was released , it briefly became Hollywood heresy to even suggest that someone else take up the part . The most late attempt at make a new live - action translation of the fictitious character inSuicide Squadwas receive with a disastrous reception with many fan aghast at the newfangled interpretation and critics pillory role player Jared Letoeven worse than they did the moving picture . The reasons for all this difficulty are many : Joker is a strange character , buff get very attached to their favorite interpretation , etc . But while the same is straight of many funny - playscript characters , the Clown Prince of Crime is unique in that - when ask - a sizeable number of his most torrid lover will tell you that one of the thing they consider most fundamental to the character ’s survive appeal is that his pedigree , psychosis , principle and even his existent name are mostly strange . In other words : They do n’t want The Joker to have an root story . Of any kind . Ever . While that may sound eccentric to a cursory observer , give the superhero genre of comic Book is full of obsessional details about the with the mythos of every henchman , sidekick , Mother Boxand Infinity Stone , most of this fascination with The Joker remain inscrutable is about adherence to DC Comics custom . When Jokerfirst appeared , he was an enigmatic figure whose freakish clown - like " lifelike " appearance was as mysterious as the solution to where he came from or what was " wrong " with him . fit in to the graphic symbol ’s widely recognized ( with input signal from Bill Finger and Bob Kane ) creator , author Jerry Robinson , that was intentional - and while he ’d discussed giving an reply over the year , none rise satisfactory compared to the steadily - wax mystique . The white skin , green hair and frozen smile eventually received an account : he had antecedently been a dissemble outlaw called The Red Hood , who had fallen into a vat of toxic waste during an clash with Batman . But on the button what his identity was under the hoodlum prior to that would remain a secret for tenner ; finally becoming a lasting fixture of the character ’s essence … a mystery that not even Batman can lick . Other origins either supercede or expand on thiswere stick in over the years , but none ever carry off to " stick " as the real affair . In 1988 , comics legend Alan Moore and artist Brian Bolland collaborated on a one - off Batman history , The Killing Joke , which aim to create a classical ( possible ) backstory that also held to the know DC persistence . In this chronicle , we see that The Joker was a sputter stand - up comic who ’d been draw into get into the Red Hood costume ( there is no " genuine " Red Hood , it flex out ) by a group of burglar on what just so pass to be a day where his intact life has fallen tragically apart in a series of horrifyingly preposterous co-occurrence . at long last driven over the boundary by his Batman coming upon and subsequent disfiguring chemical bath , The Joker is born - and we still do n’t learn his real name .

The Killing Jokehad a lasting outcome on DC continuity ( which Moore would come to publicly regret ) when editors decided to fold the plot - contingent ofBarbara Gordonbeing partially - paralyzed by Joker ’s attack into the prescribed Batman storyline going forward . But by demarcation , Moore ’s Joker origin was almost instantly background as either one of many potential backstories that had been skirt to throughout the character ’s history or , at least , as a serial of event that Joker remembers very other than from whatever the realism is . Since then , new potential - origins have positioned him as everything from an immortal demonic entity to an abused child to a common mobster gone too far - and that ’s not including widely - popular"fan theories"that imagine ( among other things ) that The Joker ’s madness might staunch from him in secret being one of the smattering of DC character who are consciously aware that they are fictitious beings living in a comic book of account .

To put it mildly : If 75 + years of comics have n’t been able to settle on a acceptable explanation for the why , who , and how of The Joker … how can any one movie hope to do so ? Indeed , one of the major problem with previous attempts would seem to be that any extra humanity ( even in the abstraction ) has dish out to lessen the character ’s power . The less we know about The Joker ( is he even human ? Can he die ? ) the light it is to " bribe into " the estimate that a villain with no special powers whose " gear " is usually very canonic - or exposit - for - humor’s - sake - as the ultimate scourge of the nigh - unstoppable , hard - armed Batman .

And while , yes , the Scorsese / Philips Joker project ( which , for the record , is set to be a law-breaking film coiffe in the 1980s ) is being contrive as part of a separately - label slating of standalone DC moving-picture show set outside the continuity of the main DCEU ( a’la the"Elseworlds"publishing impression on the comics side ) and in fact may not even boast a Batman . It ’s insufferable to imagine consultation bothering to make that sort of a distinction in a broader pop - cultural sense , though . Even if this is n’t " the " DCEU Joker , it will inevitably be associate and/or compared by the world at large - and if it turns out to be the one fans prefer ( or just the one that sell more tickets ) , how long until the campaign to formally mix him into the " principal roster " begin ?

In the remnant , even the skeptical would be hard - adjure to not be at least a little bit curious about Scorsese and Philips delivering a grittier , more world - adjacent take on the concept of " themed " superintendent - criminal . But when it comes to The Joker , maybe less is still more regardless of how much endowment you put behind it . One thing that the " cinematic cosmos " age of genre filmmaking has made progressively clean-cut is that , while persistence can be interesting and even utilitarian , few thing can spoil the fun of an offbeat conception like trying to over - explain it . The Joker is one of the last thing in the genre that can just show up and " form " without necessitate any dull , diminishing buildup - why give that up ?