Sorry folks, it looks like there's no world where the new version of Joker played by Joaquin Phoenix would crossover with director Matt Reeves' version of The Batman. Earlier on Monday, the R-rated movie was screened at TIFF festival 2019 where director Todd Phillips dropped the disappointing news.
Joker has already generated Oscar buzz since its premiere at Venice film festival. Phoenix's impressive performance as the clown prince of crime was loved by the critics, which evidently prompted the question, would fans get to see the new Batman played by Robert Pattinson clash with this version of the Joker? Unfortunately, No.
Phillips outright said "No, definitely not," to Variety, with no hesitation when asked about the possibility of a crossover. And understandably so, it is not possible for the new batman, existing inside the DC Extended Universe to appear beside the new Joker which exists outside the cinematic universe as a one-off title.
The Joker is an 'Elseworld' title, which means the movie is not part of the DCEU and at the moment, the studio has no plans for a sequel as well. But that does not mean this would be the last time fans would get to see the supervillain in DC Comics-based movies.
"Oddly, in the states, comic books are our Shakespeare it seems, and you can do many many versions of Hamlet," Phillips said. "There will be many more jokers, I'm sure, in the future."
Those words remain true even at the moment as the DCEU version of Joker played by Jared Leto could appear again in future movies with even Oscar-winning actor showing interest in reprising the role.
Though Leto's performance received mix responses, the studio has not revealed any plans of replacing the actor anytime soon for the DCEU. Moreover, the upcoming Birds of Prey movie also has references to the clown prince of crime.
Phillips has also pitched a new universe called DC Dark to Warner Bros, where directors would have the freedom to explore interesting DC characters with one-off titles, existing outside of DCEU. Perhaps, the upcoming R-rated movie could influence the studio in going ahead with establishing a new world.
The Joker movie hits theatres on October 4.
