Kevin Smith Hilariously Connects Joker’s Real Name to Batman Star Ben Affleck

In DC Films’ upcoming Joker origin movie, the iconic Batman villain’s real name is set to be Arthur Fleck. Now, Kevin Smith is making a hilarious connection between that name and Batman actor Ben Affleck.

Earlier today director Todd Phillips shared a headshot-like photo of Joaquin Phoenix as the character and Smith took a moment to hit up Twitter to make his own joke about the names. Check it out below.

“Apparently, in the forthcoming #Joker movie, the Joker‘s real name is Arthur Fleck. As in A. Fleck. Now THAT’S funny,” Smith wrote.

Affleck. “A. Fleck.” Get it?

While there’s nothing to indicate that the names are deliberately similar, it is kind of interesting, especially as Affleck’s status as Batman remains a giant question mark to DC fans. Rumors have swirled for some time that Affleck is either leaving or staying in the role, though a report last week claimed that, in light of Henry Cavill’s possible exit from the role of Superman, Affleck may truly be done for good.

Affleck “isn’t expecting to reprise his role for director Matt Reeves’ forthcoming Batman stand-alone film,” the report alleged.

Granted, Affleck — as Batman or not — has nothing to do with Phillips’ Joker film. The film is expected to be a Taxi Driver-esque, standalone, origin story for the Joker character where he turns to a life of villainy after failing as a stand-up comedian. Joker is being executive produced by Martin Scorsese and will also star Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Francis Conroy, and Marc Maron.

“I wouldn’t quite classify this as like any genre,” Phoenix said in a recent interview. “I wouldn’t say it’s a superhero movie, or a studio movie or a … It feels unique, and I think more than anything, and probably the most important thing, is Todd seems very passionate about it and very giving, and so that’s exciting. 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. 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.”

Joker is expected to debut in theaters on October 4, 2019. Upcoming DC Extended Universe films include Aquaman on December 21st, Shazam! on April 5, 2019, and Wonder Woman 1984 on November 1, 2019.