Joker: Every Character Ranked Worst To Best

How do Gotham's newest residents fare?

By Simon Gallagher /

Warner Bros.

Joker is what many film-makers aspire to make - a revelatory, transgressive character piece that focused unflinchingly on its subject and explores some incredibly important subject matter through that filter. It is the tale of one man's transformation, but he is very much at the epicentre of a world that includes other key characters, mostly played by some incredibly gifted actors.

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You probably already know the answer, but who comes out of it best is a pretty loaded question - particularly with Joaquin Phoenix rubbing shoulders with the likes of Brian Tyree Henry, Brett Cullen, Frances Conroy and of course Robert DeNiro.

In truth, the film COULD have been a one man show and it would still have been utterly intoxicating, such is the strength of that one character, but the decision was made to include an entire roster of characters. And it's fair to say that not all of them were quite as equal as others.

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13. Ted Marco

Warner Bros.

Originally announced as Arthur's agent, Marc Maron's Ted Marco is on screen twice in Joker for a grand total of about 40 seconds in total. It feels very much like the majority of his role has been left on the cutting room floor, because all he gets to do is admonish Arthur for daring to call Murray Franklin "Murray" and not "Mr Franklin" and witnessing the conversation between Murray and Arthur about why he's dressed as a clown and why he wants to be called Joker.

Fundamentally, he could have been left out of the film entirely and absolutely nothing would have changed, which is a travesty when you consider how brilliant Marc Maron is. It's no more than a cameo and it might have been okay if it wasn't announced beforehand as if he had some relevance at all.

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