12 Actors Who Should Play The Joker In Scorsese's Origin Movie

You might think that the only correct way to respond to the news of Todd Phillips' The Joker origin movie was with pompous cynicism, given how much of the Internet reacted in the wake of the news. Even the presence of Martin Scorsese on that report wasn't enough to convince some of the more vocal detractors that it could be a real thing of beauty.

Perhaps it's just a case of Jared Leto's performance looming too large in memory?

But the best thing for everyone about The Joker origin, is that it won't star Leto. It won't even be set in the mainline DCEU, so there's no need for it to be subject to the same established lore or tone or timeline as those movies. And given how easy some find it to criticise those movies (rightly or wrongly), that's a good thing for a complex movie to market.

Right now the film-makers face an almighty battle to get this film moving in the right direction: they're faced with the prospect of establishing an origin for a character whose appeal lies partly in being an unexplained, inexplicable marvel, and the danger of demystifying him is massive. It goes without saying, then, that they need to make sure they cast exactly the right figure to lead that project, to score a positive PR victory early on at the very least.

So who should be given the chance of another shot at Joker greatness?