The final trailer for Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker is here, and it highlights Arthur Fleck’s journey to become the clown prince of crime.
From its very inception, Joker has been as strange and unexpected as its titular character.
The film focuses on Batman’s most popular and diabolical villain — but will take place in a world without him. It was directed by Todd Phillips, best known for his work on The Hangover trilogy. It’s a movie completely unconnected to the current DCEU in any way, and one that director Todd Phillips says does not follow any specific comic book storyline.
It’s also eschewing the blockbuster route trodden by most other comic book films, and will instead run the festival circuit for its coming out party. Joker will make its world premiere at the upcoming Venice Film Festival — making it the first comic book movie to ever do so — then heading over to play at the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival.
Check out out the final trailer below, which offers up what will sure to be another stellar Joaquin Phoenix performance and a better look at the film’s supporting characters.
Though it takes place in the 1980s, Joker has been described as having the feel of a 1970s gangster movie, with a tone close to Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets.
It stars Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, a failed stand-up comedian whose failures and mental illness drive him into the seedy criminal underbelly of Gotham City.
The supporting cast includes Robert De Niro as a talk show host inspired by his 1982 film, The King of Comedy. As we can see in the trailer, his is a character whose actions contribute to Arthur’s psychological and mental decline, which eventually leads him to becoming the Joker. Deadpool and Atlanta favorite Zazie Beetz will play a single mother who is Arthur’s love interest, while Brett Cullen will play Thomas Wayne, a billionaire philanthropist and Gotham mayor hopeful who is destined be gunned down in Crime Alley sometime in the near future.
Joker will release in theaters nationwide October 4.