Principal photography for Matt Reeves‘ The Batman is underway and fans are already looking forward to the future installments in the series. After Reeves himself teased a trilogy featuring Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader years ago, some have suggested it wouldn’t be a complete Batman series without the inclusion of The Joker, a long-time Batman archnemesis. As such, some fans have fancast Pirates of the Caribbean alumnus Johnny Depp in the role and one fan artist has even gone the length to craft a piece of fan art showing the actor in the role.
The piece in question comes from Instagram artist @death.streak_art and it’s a sight to behold. There doesn’t appear to be a clear inspiration for this iteration of the Joker. In the piece, Depp’s character doesn’t necessarily look like Heath Ledger’s anarchist take, nor does he look like the edgy role Jared Leto performed in The Suicide Squad. If anything, the art makes Depp look like Jack Nicholson’s mob boss character — certainly a not a bad comparison considering the options.
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Though Reeves has stopped short of confirming a trilogy himself, other reports have suggested he’s signed on board for three films.
“You know, you have to start with a story that begins something,” Reeves stressed in 2017. “I would be lying if I could tell you that the arcs of Apes was already planned out, because it simply wasn’t; it’s one of those things where that character was so potent, and the possibility was embedded from the beginning, but exactly how you’ve got from A to Z is not something that existed.”
The filmmaker added, “In fact, when I came in on Dawn, the story that I wanted to tell was different from the story that they had even presented me. And so, there are these broad ideas, I think, that sort of came to mind as Rise was created, of how that story could be told, but they weren’t explicitly laid-out. And when Mark and I began Dawn, we knew what our goals were, but we didn’t know how we were gonna get there, and I would say that that more relates to the way that I see a Batman story, is a kind of ambition for a series of stories, but really the most important thing is gonna be to tell a vital first story.”
The Batman hits theaters June 25, 2021.
Other upcoming DC movies include Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5th, The Suicide Squad on August 6, 2021, Black Adam on December 22, 2021, Shazam! 2 on April 1, 2022, The Flash on July 1, 2022, and Aquaman 2 on December 16, 2022.
