Joaquin Phoenix’s New Joker Photo Gets a Creepier Fan Remake

With production underway on the origin film for DC Comics’ greatest Batman villain, fans are responding to the new images of Joaquin Phoenix as The Joker. But some of them have expressed frustration over the character’s appearance, which is more similar to a traditional clown rather than the Clown Prince of Crime that many know and love.

So this latest piece of fan art from Boss Logic imagines a more familiar look for Phoenix’s take on the Joker, more in line with the character’s appearance in The Dark Knight. Take a look below and see for yourself:

While the current look for the title villain of The Joker might put fans off, new footage from the movie should put them at ease. The character is wearing garb that’s very similar in appearance to the Joker’s outfit in the Batman TV series from the ’60s, as well as Jack Nicholson’s take in Tim Burton’s Batman film from ’89.

That video also appears to be capturing an aesthetic and tone that’s very similar to Christopher Nolan’s own Batman trilogy. Phoenix appears to be going for a similar approach as the iconic Heath Ledger from The Dark Knight, embracing the chaos and relishing what follows a random act of violence.

Of course, that Joker didn’t enjoy random crimes as much as he did his interactions with the Caped Crusader, but considering this is an origin in which Batman does not yet exist, it tracks so far to see Joker taking enjoyment from petty crime before moving on to bigger fish. This movie is confirmed to be a stand-alone project as of now, but it seems like it could easily play into a future Batman movie or even serve as a prequel to The Dark Knight.

Phoenix previously spoke about his hesitance to take on a project such as this, but revealed he was all in after hearing director Todd Phillips’ vision for the Joker.

“I think, underneath the excitement of these films, and the size of them, there are these incredible characters that are dealing with real life struggles,” Phoenix previously told Collider. “And sometimes that is uncovered and exposed, and sometimes it isn’t, and so I always felt, like, there were characters in comics that were really interesting and deserve the opportunity to be kind of studied. And so I think that’s what Todd sees appealing about this idea.”

The Joker is set to debut in theaters on October 4, 2019.