Remember when, last summer, news broke that a standalone Joker movie was in the works, to be directed by The Hangover and War Dogs director Todd Philips? After months of radio silence, we have a front runner for the role: Joaquin Phoenix.
According to Variety, Phoenix isn't confirmed by the studio—he's just been chosen by Philips and game to play the role, if Warner Bros. signs off on it and negotiations turn out favorably. Phoenix is, of course, the kind of actor that you cast as the Joker in a post-Ledger world: intense, committed, and probably a fan of method acting. He's also not who you'd expect to star in a Todd Philips movie, so who knows what this will even be like. Details are scant, but Variety says the movie "will delve into what it took for the Joker to become a mastermind criminal" and that it would "take place in the ’80s and have more of the look of a gritty crime drama than comic-book movie."
Of course, Jared Leto is also still, ostensibly, playing the Joker (or a Joker) in both Suicide Squad 2 and a standalone feature starring himself and Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn. Both of these Jokers are not related to each other, since Philip's movie is part of a still-in-the-works lineup of films that aren't striving to build a shared universe. This is a good thing—it lets Philips make a wildly different movie (I'm thinking Goodfellas with murder clowns)—but also comes with the downside that these two Jokers will forever be in parallel timelines, and never the twain shall meet. Which is a damn shame, because the only thing more twisted than the Joker is....two Jokers .