Let his fans be reassured, all hope of seeing Willem Dafoe in the role of the Joker is not dead! Finally, the role of the Joker… Who would take it from Joaquin Phoenix? The actor, currently starring in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “The Card Counter”, has found the perfect idea to make everyone agree.
Willem Dafoe, the perfect antagonist
The actor Willem Dafoe, 66 years old on the clock and great films in shambles on his CV, has a monstrous talent that immense directors have been able to exploit. In addition to his talent, his features and his smile as charming as they are diabolical have made him one of cinema’s most recognizable and desired actors. His traits, precisely, seem to have predisposed him to a role he never had, that of the Joker, the greatest enemy of the famous superhero Batman. As a regular in terrifying roles, he would obviously be ideal in the role.
While he has already played the role of Norman Osborn / The Green Goblin four times at Marvel, three times in Sam Raimi’s trilogy and recently in Spider-Man: No Way Home, he opened up about the infamous DC villain during an interview for GQ. Without obviously ignoring that the role is currently held by Joaquin Phoenix, exceptional in his historic performance for the film by Todd Phillipps Joker, Willem Dafoe shared a brilliant idea where he could imagine himself taking on the same features. But in a configuration that is subtle to say the least.
Play a Joker impostor
In 2019, Joaquin Phoenix reverses while becoming the main character of the film Joker. Unforgettable antihero, the character becomes the time of a film a protagonist, thus excluding the presence of Batman, since the Dark Knight cannot be – not yet at least – a pure villain. A brilliant idea, but one that complicates the future. Should we design a film where the two characters would appear, each trying to be the hero and main character? Complex. But with the idea of a sequel to the 2019 film nonetheless catching on, perhaps Willem Dafoe has found the best possible scenario.
Impossible to question Joaquin Phoenix in the role. And it’s hard not to all agree that we still want see Willem Dafoe under the same makeup. Workaround? Willem Dafoe could star in a movie Joker or he would be a copycat, an imposter posing as the Joker. He develops this idea as follows:
It would be interesting to have an impostor Joker. That way there wouldn’t be two real Jokers, but one of them pretending to be the other. And in a way, it opens up the possibility of an interesting story, especially with Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, someone who would imitate him or copy what he did. I fantasized about this idea. This is the first time I’ve spoken about it.
The idea is brilliant, simple, and would make it possible to follow up the film Joker giving him an enemy that wouldn’t be Batman. An enemy who would know how to push the real Joker to his limits, and therefore push him even further in his madness, which Joaquin Phoenix would know how to execute wonderfully. So we hope that Warner has heard the idea and that the writers have already got to work!
