When you think of comic book movies, your mind generally tends to drift towards $200 million budgets and massive-scale action sequences of global destruction that rely on the latest in cutting-edge visual effects, but recent history has shown that some of the best entries in the genre don’t always have to have the fate of the world at stake and cost a fortune to produce.
Deadpool is the cheapest X-Men movie ever made by a huge distance at a thrifty $58 million, but it went on to become the highest-grossing installment in the mutant franchise’s history until the sequel came along, while Logan cost less than half as much as Dark Phoenix, made over twice as much at the box office and was ten times better.
A lot of people were skeptical about the idea of a standalone Joker prequel, but director Todd Phillips and star Joaquin Phoenix delivered one of last year’s definitive movies, one that also became an awards season favorite and the biggest R-rated hit in the history of cinema after raking in almost $1.1 billion on a budget of just $55 million.
Studios had always been reluctant to make R-rated comic book movies so that they didn’t alienate a huge portion of their audience, but the floodgates seem to have been opened in recent years, leading to exciting new possibilities. And in a recent interview, former Daredevil star Vincent D’Onofrio admitted that the prospect of a Joker-inspired outing for his portrayal of Wilson Fisk would be something he’d very much like to explore.
“Yeah, I mean, I think that’d be awesome. I think there’s more to do with him, but you just never know, it’s such an intense company. Because when I think of Marvel, I think of so many storylines, it’s like you think of DC, it’s the same thing. There are so many stories. I can’t imagine being in that chair trying to figure out which ones are the ones to be told next. And that’s how I look at it, as a creative person. I see it much bigger than just my part. I just see it as these huge opportunities.”
D’Onofrio’s Kingpin is without a doubt one of the best-ever Marvel villains, albeit one that isn’t even considered canon anymore, although there has been near-constant speculation surrounding a potential return. The idea of him reprising the role in an R-rated crime movie is a mouth-watering prospect that certainly has the potential for greatness, but unfortunately, it just doesn’t seem to fit in the studio’s wheelhouse.