While it seems like the majority of fans are going to love Joker, there will definitely be a few who are displeased with the movie’s take on the iconic titular character. Director Todd Phillips has a message for those critics, though: don’t worry. The villain will inevitably be back again in some way, shape or form.
“There are always going to be naysayers, but from what I gather about the momentum of the movie and the response to the teaser we put out, the majority of fans seem to be excited about going down a different road… but also, this will not be the last Joker movie ever made. It might be the last one Joaquin and I do, but someone else is going to come along and do another one, just like with Spider-Man.
So if you don’t like this one, don’t worry — it’ll get reinvented again… that’s the fun thing about these characters… in a way, comic books are our Shakespeare and just like there are many versions of Hamlet and Macbeth, they’ve done four or five versions of the Joker in the last 25 or 30 years. So why not do another one that’s wildly different?”
It truly does seem like the legendary bad guy will be a recurring portrayal throughout the future of cinema. Just like James Bond, audiences can’t get enough of this fictional badass. Some movies with the Clown Prince at the forefront are bound to be better than others, of course, but that’s the risk that filmmakers take on when they try to create or adapt material featuring such a beloved character.
It does sound like Joker is going to be a huge success, though. Thanks to leading man Joaquin Phoenix, who’s rumored to have given the best performance of his prolific career, the movie is already receiving some Oscar buzz. Fans’ expectations are going to be sky high, so it’s going to be interesting to see if this film can meet or possibly even exceed them.
It’s nice that Phillips realizes that his adaptation is not the last of its kind, but it’s also sad that this sounds like it’s going to be the last Joker movie he and Phoenix ever undertake. If this flick really is all it’s cracked up to be, audiences are going to be begging for more from the dynamic duo. Maybe they’ll change their minds if the feature does as well as they hope it’s going to, or maybe we won’t even want them to return if it ends up being a flop?
Either way, the pic is definitely going to be something that all fans of the character are going to want to see when Joker hits theaters on October 4th.