10 Ways Joker's Origin Movie Could Completely Change The DCEU

10. A Return To Self-Contained Superhero Features

Warner Bros.

It might be hard to think it, but there was a time when everyone wasn't so concerned about building a 'cinematic universe' to interlink all of their properties. The novelty is yet to wear off of course, but still, it does get a tad tedious when news of a fifth or sixth interlinking adventure is being planned (ask Universal how Dark Universe is going, please).

Fittingly enough, the last superhero project made without the intent to build a universe around it was 2012's The Dark Knight Rises. It was divisive, yes, but it capped off a seminal series of Bat-films that, in no small way, transcended the genre onscreen. Like the reported Joker origin story, Christopher Nolan's trilogy rooted itself heavily in the crime genre, borrowing aspects from The Departed, Heat and others to tell a crime film that just so happened to have Batman in it.

An organic way, then, of inserting superheroes into a live action medium. And indeed, it's why the trilogy was so successful. Certain fans may lament the series' 'real world' feel but the fact of the matter is that the trilogy was Nolan's vision through and through; a faithful adaptation of the character's source material that opted to tell its own story with the talent requisite to convey a convincing interpretation of the mythos.

With this Joker film, it could be the case that WB are looking back at what made that particular trilogy work and how they could transplant it to a post-Avengers milieu. This wouldn't necessarily negate the existence of the DCEU, but it would - at least tacitly - acknowledge that there are both positives and negatives to draw from a self-styled extended universe.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.