Frances McDormand Turns Down Role in Joker Origin Movie

It seems Frances McDormand won’t be in the Joker Origin movie after all.

Recent reports indicated that McDormand was in talks to play the role of Joker’s mother in the upcoming Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Phillips Joker origin movie. According to The Wrap’s Umberto Gonzalez, it appears that isn’t going to happen any longer.

“DC NEWS NUGGET: Frances McDormand passed on playing Joaquin Phoenix’s mom in Todd Phillip’s UNTITLED JOKER ORIGIN movie,” Gonzalez wrote. “They want a name for the mom.”

As implied in the tweet, it seems Phillips wants a big name to play the mother, so it would appear that the role has a substantial part in the film. Details aren’t given on why McDormand passed on the role, but that could be for any number of reasons.

The film will be produced by Martin Scorsese and will be a dark and gritty take on the character that shows how he came to be the Clown Prince of Crime. The story is expected to take elements from The Killing Joke, and center around a failed 1980s comedian who turns to crime after bombing time and time again.

Phoenix has been attached since news first broke about the project, and it took some time for him to fully decide if the project was for him.

“I take a lot of time and consideration when making decisions and what I’m gonna work on, always. So, in some ways, the process, which is obviously reading a script and meeting a filmmaker and then continuing to have meetings and discussions with Todd [Phillips],” Phoenix told Collider. “I think he’s very impressive and he seems to have a very interesting understanding of this world and what he’s trying to say. And so there is something very appealing about that and working with him on this particular project. It feels unique, it is its own world in some ways, and maybe, mostly, it scares the f-cking sh-t out of me or something. It might as well be the thing that scares you the most.”

This will be one of two Joker projects in the works. A standalone Joker film with Jared Leto reprising his role from Suicide Squad is also in development, and it is unknown if he will also return for the upcoming Suicide Squad 2. Leto’s film will take place within the confines of movie continuity though, while this origin film will be under a new label that DC and Warner Bros. have yet to announce.