Kevin Smith Is All for Two Joker Movies

Everyone has an opinion about Warner Bros. plans to make Joker with Joaquin Phoenix, in addition to their future projects involving Jared Leto‘s take on DC Comics’ popular villain. Not all of those opinions are positive, but if you ask Kevin Smith, he thinks it’s a good thing.

The filmmaker and super nerd addressed the different projects at a fan event for San Diego Comic-Con, and according to footage captured by Variety, Smith is stoked at the prospect.

“I’m all for it. I know a lot of people got sh*tty about it… I’m all for it,” Smith said. “When I was growing up, we had no Joker movies and you were lucky if you got a Batman movie, and the Joker was usually in that. But think about it now, it’s a world full of comic book movies. We’ve seen all the big guns and all the main characters. Aquaman‘s coming down the pike this summer, that’s tremendous. But in that world, why not single out one of the most famous comic book villains, most famous bad guys of all time, the Joker?”

Warner Bros. fast tracked development on a Joker origin story, which will begin filming this fall with Joaquin Phoenix as the title character. That movie is set to come out in October of next year, and does not interfere with the studio’s plans to feature Jared Leto as the Clown Prince of Crime in a future project.

While some fans say two different versions of the characters could confuse fans, Smith isn’t buying it.

“To me, it smells like a step in the right direction,” Smith said. “They’ve taken a lot of crap for all the movies they’ve made so far not being as good as the Marvel movies, because they’ve been trying to make them in the Marvel method.”

Smith explained that Warner Bros. approach is back to basics for the studio, doing what made them successful with the original Superman and Batman franchises.

“They should be applauded for trying something different, trying what for them is rather similar, but trying something different from what they were doing which people seemed so dissatisfied with those movies that they made so far.”

At the end of the day, Smith is satisfied not only with Warner Bros.’ approach for DC movies going forward, but with the fact that we’re getting more comic book movies.

Hopefully he’s on to something and fans simply get something entertaining.

Joker is scheduled to premiere in theaters on October 4th.