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Joker director debunks The Batman crossover speculation, Leonardo DiCaprio casting rumour

September 15, 2019 by Amie Cranswick

Last week, Variety reported that incoming Dark Knight Robert Pattinson may have dropped a potential spoiler regarding The Batman, after the actor reportedly requested that some comments about Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker were redacted during an interview.


Given that Joker exists separately from the established DC Extended Universe, and The Batman’s DCEU status remains unclear after Ben Affleck’s exit from the role, this report naturally led to that Pattinson’s Dark Knight Detective could find himself sharing the screen with Phoenix’s Clown Prince of Crime.

However, it seems that won’t be the case after all, as Joker director Todd Phillips has responded with a “no, definitely not” when asked about the possibility of the pair appearing together in a future DC movie, adding that: “Oddly, in the States, comic books are our Shakespeare it seems, and you can do many many versions of ‘Hamlet’. There will be many more jokers, I’m sure, in the future.”

SEE ALSO: Read our review of Joker here

That wasn’t the only rumour Phillips debunked this week either, as the filmmaker also revealed that there was no truth to the early casting reports that Leonardo DiCaprio was being sought for the role of Arthur Fleck:

“We wrote the movie for Joaquin,” confirmed Phillips. “He was not keen on jumping into costume in any comic-book movie… I kept waiting for him to just say, ‘O.K., I’m in,’ And he never did that. You just never get a yes. All you get is more questions.”

Joker centres around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone story not seen before on the big screen. The exploration of Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a man disregarded by society, is not only a gritty character study but also a broader cautionary tale.

Joker is set for release on October 4th 2019 and stars Joaquin Phoenix (The Sisters Brothers), Robert De Niro (Goodfellas), Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2), Bill Camp (Red Sparrow), Frances Conroy (American Horror Story), Brett Cullen (Narcos), Glenn Fleshler (Billions), Douglas Hodge (Penny Dreadful), Marc Maron (GLOW), Josh Pais (Motherless Brooklyn), Shea Whigham (Kong: Skull Island), Douglas Hodge (Robin Hood) and Dante Pereira-Olson (You Were Never Really Here).

Via Variety

Filed Under: Gary Collinson, Movies, News Tagged With: DC, Joker, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Pattinson, The Batman, Todd Phillips

About Amie Cranswick

Amie Cranswick has been part of Flickering Myth's editorial team for over a decade. She has a background in publishing and copyediting and has served as Executive Editor of FlickeringMyth.com since 2020.

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