DC fans have been teased with the idea of “Three Jokers” for years now, with comic scribe Geoff Johns first planting the seed during the “Darkseid War” storyline and revealing the trio of clowns in DC Rebirth #1. YouTuber “Eli Q” took their excitement for the new storyline to a new level, making a fan trailer for a live-action movie of “Three Jokers” and seamlessly blending Joaquin Phoenix’s character, Heath Ledger‘s version, and even Jared Leto‘s take on the character into one story. Featuring Ben Affleck as Batman and functioning as a “sequel” to Todd Phillips’ 2019 movie, you can check out the fan trailer in the player above!
Though “Three Jokers” will likely never see life on the big screen (unless Warner Bros. Home Entertainment does an animated adaptation) but the comic book story will published under DC’s Black Label imprint with Geoff Johns writing and artist Jason Fabok on pencils.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“The coolest thing about this story is no one knows anything about it,” Johns said at New York Comic Con in 2018. “It’s a pretty mature take. I’ve never gotten to write a Batman and Joker story, and Jay’s never gotten to draw one. We wanted to tell the best batman story, the best Joker story possible.”
Batman: Three Jokers will focus primarily on three characters, Bruce Wayne, Barbara Gordon, and Jason Todd. The trio are arguably the characters in DC that the Clown Prince of Crime has hurt the most from Jason’s death in “A Death in the Family,” Barbara’s paralysis in Batman: The Killing Joke, and well, those events and so much more for Bruce. In addition to the story’s central characters, Johns and Fabok also revealed the three eras of the Joker they plan to use in the story: the first appearance Joker from 1940, the classic Silver Age version, and a Joker inspired by Brian Bolland’s Killing Joke villain. Fabok teased last year that fans will be in for a ride with the series when it’s released, specifically teasing its ending.
“My most controversial batman opinion…has actually become the ending of Batman: Three Jokers,” he tweeted last year. “It’s going to cause quite the stir and is the gutsiest thing written in Batman in 80 years.”
Cover art for Three Jokers was unveiled during San Diego Comic-Con back in 2018 but though no publishing schedule has been announced, the book will run for three issues. Johns previously explained at the time that the story isn’t focused on other dimensions or alternate earths, but instead will touch on the villain’s origins and will have some decidedly funny touches as well.
“It’s all about scars and healing wrong and healing right and pain,” Johns said last year. “If I could tell one Joker story, this is the one I would tell… There’s this really fun scene where Joker drives this truck. He goes to the woods and there’s a cabin with a light on, and he knocks on the door and there’s a Joker standing there wearing a Hawaiian shirt, and The Joker says, ‘That’s my shirt.’”
