10 DC Villains To Watch Out For In 2019 On Film & TV
6. Joaquin Phoenix's Joker - Joker
Warner Bros.
Todd Phillips' Joker movie remains shrouded in mystery, but there's no denying the buzz surrounding it. Joaquin Phoenix is a stellar choice to portray the Clown Prince of Crime, and the fact it's removed from the divisive DCEU goes some way in ensuring interests are piqued right across the board, and not just with DC fans solely.
Either way, it goes without saying that one of the main DC villains to expect in 2019 is the Joker. Dubbed Arthur Fleck, this version of the Clown Prince will take inspiration from Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's Killing Joke by portraying him as a down on his luck comedian from the early 1980s. It looks to be borrowing at least a small element of the character's anarchistic streak from The Dark Knight too, with the character gearing up to take on the Trump-esque figure of Thomas Wayne - a departure for both figures, it must be said.
Departure or not, however, there's no denying that this is the most exciting DC project Warner Bros. have announced in years. Free from continuity and the constraints of having to seed sequels and spin-offs, Joker will see a return to the kind of self-contained comic book movie not seen since 2012's The Dark Knight Rises, and Phoenix's performance is bound to be its biggest draw.
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.
