Every live action DC movie featuring the Joker, ranked

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Every live action DC movie featuring the Joker, ranked

Batman’s most iconic villain, JokerHas appeared in multiple live-action DC movies, but not every appearance ranks the same. The Joker’s legacy is nearly as extensive as his heroic arch-nemesis, first debuting in DC Comics in the 1940s Batman #1 Before they become just as much of a DC mainstay in almost every medium. Adaptations of the Joker have led to such iconic performances as Mark Hamill’s animated version, while his live-action movie career has exploded in recent years with seven memorable appearances so far. Joker: Folie à Deux The legacy has recently expanded, with the DC Universe promising yet another version of the Joker to join some stiff competition.

Thanks to his extensive career across media, his character can often feel like one of the most malleable. With his popularity exploding in recent years, the pressure for successive actors to put their own spin on the character continues to intensify to varying degrees of success. Still, Joker has always been an agent of chaos at his heart, as this combined with his flamboyant wardrobe antagonizes his arch rival, Batman. His popularity has also allowed Joker to sidestep defined by his relationship with the Caped Crusader. How well the character was handled, however, is always discussed.

7

Barry Keoghan in The Batman

Barry Keoghan’s rendition of Joker in The Batman is fleeting and largely inconsequential without a sequel to pay off the tease that was its arrival. He appears in the final cut as a silhouette talking to an imprisoned Riddler, whose foiled plot causes him to have a breakdown. Keoghan’s Joker attempts to secure this from a neighboring cell by befriending him with a riddle, implying that Riddler could make a comeback with his help. A deleted scene gives Keoghan’s Joker a bigger role The BatmanHowever, affording him a five-minute interaction with the eponymous vigilante.

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The deleted scene may provide marks in favor of Keoghan’s Joker, however His role is still ultimately too small to be considered a serious contender among other Joker appearances. Nevertheless, his deleted scene provides a promising hint of what is to come in Matt Reeves’ Batman trilogy – which may be one of the most gruesome interpretations brought to the big screen. His full design remains difficult to make out, as he is constrained to tight shots and blurred-out appearances, but his heavily scarred visage is clear and could become a particularly memorable appearance.

6

Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie in Deux

Joker renounces his identity with his second appearance

Warning: This entry contains spoilers for Joker: Folie à Deux

Joker: Folie à Deux is Joker’s most recent live-action appearance on the big screen – though what “Joker“Is is another question. Joker: Folie à Deux proved to be an incredibly controversial part for what was a complete 180 on the character, culminating in Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck renouncing the mantle he had embraced in Joker Before he is murdered by an Arkham resident who appears to be the real deal. This creative decision led to some strong opinions about the movie that legitimately questioned whether it was a Joker movie.

Regardless, Fleck’s original Joker persona still makes several memorable appearances throughout the movie. Unfortunately, knowing in the wake of its ending that the character is not genuine makes it difficult to consider Joaquin Phoenix’s reprise of the role as anything more than a carpet-pull. A more generous reading of the situation suggests that Joker is a movement instead of an individual, making Joker: Folie à Deux A creative interpretation of the character that still deserves some credit.

5

Jared Leto in Zack Snyder’s Justice League

Jared Leto’s second shot at the role was fleeting and muted

Taking place in the post-apocalyptic”Nightmare” sequence in the climax of Zack Snyder’s Justice LeagueJared Leto’s Joker looks and feels decidedly different from his DCEU debut in Suicide Squad. This version of the Joker hones in on his toxic relationship with Batman, with Leto delivering a more subdued and cerebral take on the character than before. It’s still worth noting, as it treads the line between the more sinister depictions of the Joker and the invisible, feverish version first portrayed by Leto in Suicide Squad.

While Jared Leto’s rendition of the Joker role falls foul of the same diminished screen time issues as Barry Keoghan’s character, he benefits from an established DCEU legacy. Nevertheless, the second and final appearance of the Joker from the DCEU is decidedly more muted, a trait not often associated with the Clown Prince of Crime for obvious reasons. This version of Joker, while interesting, looks more like a defeated shell of his former self, and for that reason Feels a little less compelling than its younger self and much more vibrant.

4

Jared Leto in Suicide Squad

Jared Leto’s take was original but divisive

Jared Leto’s debut as Joker in Suicide Squad He gave him a few minutes of screen time, allowing Leto a little chance to establish his interpretation of the character off-piste. Eight years after Heath Ledger’s portrayal took the world by storm, Leto had the unenviable task of following up with a rendition that was almost the polar opposite. His handful of scenes in 2015s Suicide Squad Mostly came in flashbacks and painted him as a brilliant gangland boss with a penchant for sadism, fame, and power instead of the addictive chaos and threat of his nemesis’ famous moral code.

One camp favors his fresh take as a sadistic yet charismatic foil to Batman’s hazy persona, while the other lambasts his on-the-nose character design and contrived edginess.

It’s safe to say that Jared Leto’s Joker in Suicide Squad is among the most detailed. One camp favors his fresh take as a sadistic yet charismatic foil to Batman’s hazy persona, while the other lambasts his on-the-nose character design and contrived edginess. Leto’s Joker suffered from both a lack of pros and a widely panned movie debutWhich begs the question of whether a little more of Leto’s Joker could have changed Suicide Squads critical fortunes. At least, his few scenes were in between Suicide Squads most entertaining.

3

Jack Nicholson in Batman

Jack Napier is another archetypal depiction

Jack Nicholson set the standard for the Joker in live-action before Heath Ledger would flip it on its head entirely. He is unique in that his comic-accurate origins are openly depicted, in addition to his inadvertent death at the hands of Batman. The air of mystery that surrounds most successive depictions does not factor in Batmans Jack Napier, whose crimes and characterization evoke the thematic and campier side of the character from the golden and silver ages of comics. Nicholson’s Joker is a more straightforward comic book movie villain with very few replicating his particular style.

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Despite Batman‘s Jack Napier is an agent of organized crime rather than a chaotic lone actor, Nicholson’s Joker is overtly theatrical – an impressively intuitive take on a character also known as the Clown Prince of Crime. However, he still exudes menace with his flamboyance, with an iconic legacy encapsulated in the delivery of his enduring one-liner: “Wait until they get a load of me.Batmans Joker is one of the most comically accurate and lighthearted renditions With an unassailable legacy that remains archetypal to this day.

2

Joaquin Phoenix in Joker

Arthur Fleck is a significant original interpretation of Joker’s origins

2019s Joker is ostensibly an origin story for the Joker whose real identity is Arthur Fleck – a tortured man whose genesis as an irreverent criminal came as a reaction to his troubled reality. Joker Comprises the most grounded take on the character as it unabashedly depicts Arthur Fleck as a mentally ill product of circumstance whose hideous response to being mistreated sparks an entire movement comprising like-minded people. Joker remains the most financially successful outing for the eponymous villain with a record-breaking box office for an R-rated movie that was only recently beaten by Deadpool & Wolverine.

Box office results for Joker in live action movies

Movie

Worldwide Box Office

Joker (2019)

$1.06 billion

The Dark Knight (2008)

$1 billion

The Batman (2022)

$765 million

Suicide Squad (2016)

$745 million

batman (1989)

$411 million

Joker: Folie a Deux (2024)

$119 million (now)

Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)

N/A

The cultural impact of Joker It is impossible to ignore, even sparking controversy due to Joker’s influence in the movie spilled over into real life. Joker is the eponymous villain at his most sympathetic, with the exaggerated reaction to his unfortunate circumstances striking a chord with many audiences. This nuanced take on Joker may be the loosest adaptation of the original DC Comics character (save for his second appearance), but His reinvention of the origins of the Joker – if he is the Joker at all – has become one of the most culturally relevant and enduring depictions to date..

1

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

Heath Ledger still holds the crown

Heath Ledger’s Joker remains the most definitive take on the character. The Joker of The Dark Knight is shrouded in mystery, but his motives are both open yet baffling to rational actors. He is the perfect antithesis to Batman As an agent of pure chaos and pandemonium not aligned to any ethos beyond wanting to “Watch the world burn.” his mo in The Dark Knight is simply terrorizing every facet of Gotham, from law enforcement to crime bosses, and in doing so becomes Batman’s greatest challenge because the inner workings of his mind are impossible for Bruce Wayne to read.

Ledger’s casting initially sparked backlash and confusion because the actor’s back catalog didn’t exactly lend itself to Christopher Nolan’s grounded Dark Knight universe. But his posthumous Oscar win for the character speaks volumes as he delivered one of the most compelling villains ever to grace the silver screen, with a terrifyingly frenetic performance that can never be organically replicated. ledger s Joker is now the gold standard that will always be hard to beat, although it remains to be seen what the DCU does with the character.

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