Batman’s most iconic villain,Joker, has appeared in multiple live-actionDCmovies, 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 1940’sBatman #1before becoming just as much of DC mainstay across almost every medium.Adaptations of Jokerhave given rise to such iconic performances as Mark Hamill’s animated rendition, while his live-action movie career has exploded in recent years with seven memorable appearances so far.Joker: Folie à Deuxrecently augmented this legacy, withthe DC Universe promisingyet another rendition of 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 core, as this combined with his garish wardrobe antithesizes his arch-rival, Batman. His popularity has also allowed Joker to sidestep being defined by his relationship with the Caped Crusader. How well the character was handled, however, is always debatable.
7Barry Keoghan In The Batman
The Batman’s Joker Was Barely Featured
Barry Keoghan’s rendition of Joker inThe Batmanis fleeting and largely inconsequential without a sequel to pay off the tease that was his arrival. He appears in the final cut as a silhouette who talks with an imprisoned Riddler, whose foiled plot causes him to have a breakdown. Keoghan’s Joker attempts to assuage 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 alarger role inThe Batman, however, affording him a five-minute interaction with the eponymous vigilante.
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This deleted scene may provide marks in favor of Keoghan’s Joker, buthis 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 might be one of the most grisly 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.
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 who that “Joker” is is another question.Joker: Folie à Deuxhas proved to be incredibly controversialpartly for what appeared to be a complete one-eighty on the character, culminating in Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck renouncing the mantle he had embraced inJokerbefore being murdered by an Arkham resident who seems to be the real deal. This creative decision has given rise to some strong opinions about the movie which legitimately question whether it was a Joker movie at all.
Thanks to Arthur’s murderer proceeding to cut the sides of his mouth with a shiv, a prevailing theory is that he is supposed to represent a younger version of Heath Ledger’s Joker.
Regardless,Fleck’s erstwhile Joker persona still makes several memorable appearances throughout the movie. Unfortunately, knowing in the wake of its ending that the character was not genuine makes it hard to consider Joaquin Phoenix’s reprisal of the role as anything more than a rug-pull. A more generous read of the situation suggests that Joker is a movement instead of an individual, makingJoker: Folie à Deuxa creative interpretation of the character that still deserves some credit.
5Jared Leto In Zack Snyder’s Justice League
Jared Leto’s Second Shot At The Role Was Fleeting And Muted
Taking place within thepost-apocalyptic “Knightmare” sequencein the climax ofZack Snyder’s Justice League, Jared Leto’s Joker looks and feels decidedly different from his DCEU debut inSuicide 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 is still worthy of note as it treads the line between the more sinister depictions of Joker and the lurid, feverish version first portrayed by Leto inSuicide Squad.
Zack Snyder’s Justice Leaguewas released as an HBO Max original film in 2021.
While Jared Leto’s reprisal 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, this second and final appearance of the DCEU’s Joker is decidedly more muted, a trait that isn’t often associated with the Clown Prince of Crime for self-evident reasons. This version of Joker, while interesting, looks more like a defeated shell of his former self, and for that reasonfeels slightly less compelling than his younger and far more vibrant self.
4Jared Leto In Suicide Squad
Jared Leto’s Take Was Original But Divisive
Jared Leto’s debut as Joker inSuicide Squadafforded him precious few minutes of screen time, leaving Leto little opportunity to establish his off-piste interpretation of the character. Eight years after Heath Ledger’s depiction took the world by storm, Leto had the unenviable task of following with a rendition that was almost the polar opposite. His handful of scenes in 2015’sSuicide Squadmostly came in flashbacks and painted him as a gaudy gangland boss with a penchant for sadism, reputation, and power instead of abject chaos and jeopardizing his nemesis' famous moral code.
One camp favors his fresh take as a sadistic yet charismatic foil to Batman’s surly persona, while the other lambasts his on-the-nose character design and contrived edginess.
It’s safe to say that Jared Leto’sJoker inSuicide Squadis among the most divisive. One camp favors his fresh take as a sadistic yet charismatic foil to Batman’s surly persona, while the other lambasts his on-the-nose character design and contrived edginess.Leto’s Joker suffered both from a lack of elaboration and a debut in a widely panned movie, which begs the question of whether a little more of Leto’s Joker might have changedSuicide Squad’s critical fortunes. At the very least, his few scenes were amongSuicide Squad’s most entertaining.
3Jack Nicholson In Batman
Jack Napier Is Still An 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 insofar as his comic-accurate origins are overtly depicted, in addition to his inadvertent death at the hands of Batman. The air of mystery that surrounds most successive depictions doesn’t factor intoBatman’s 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 villainwith very few replicating his distinct style.
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DespiteBatman’s Jack Napier being 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. Yet he still exudes menace with his flamboyance, with an iconic legacy encapsulated in the delivery of his enduring one-liner: “Wait till they get a load of me.“Batman’s Joker is one of the most comic-accurate and lighthearted renditionswith an unassailable legacy that remains archetypal to this day.
2Joaquin Phoenix In Joker
Arthur Fleck Is A Significantly Original Interpretation Of Joker’s Origins
2019’sJokeris 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.Jokercomprises the most grounded take on the character as it unabashedly depicts Arthur Fleck as a mentally ill product of circumstance whose heinous response to being mistreated sparks an entire movement comprising people of the same mind.Jokerremains 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 byDeadpool & Wolverine.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)
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The cultural impact ofJokeris impossible to ignore, even sparking controversy due to Joker’s influence within the movie spilling over into real life.Jokeris the eponymous villain at his most sympathetic, with the excessive reaction to his pitiable 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), butits reinvention of the Joker’s origins - if he is the Joker at all - has become one of the most culturally significant and enduring depictions to date.
1Heath Ledger In The Dark Knight
Heath Ledger Still Keeps The Crown
Heath Ledger’s Joker remains the most definitive take on the character. The Joker ofThe Dark Knightis steeped in mystery, but his motives are both overt yet baffling to rational actors.He is the perfect antithesis to Batmanas an agent of pure chaos and pandemonium unaligned to any ethos beyond wishing to “Watch the world burn.” His MO inThe Dark Knightis to simply terrorize every facet of Gotham, from law enforcement to crime bosses, and in doing so becomes Batman’s greatest challenge as the inner workings of his mind are impossible for Bruce Wayne to read.
Heath Ledger died in January 2008, six months beforeThe Dark Knightwas released.
Ledger’s casting initially sparked backlash and confusion as the actor’s back catalog didn’t exactly lend itself to Christopher Nolan’s grounded Dark Knight universe. Yet 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’sJokeris now the gold standard that will always be difficult to beat, though it remains to be seen what the DCU does with the character.
The Joker
The Joker is a psychopathic criminal mastermind with a warped sense of humor. Initially introduced as a remorseless serial killer, the character evolved over time, often oscillating between a prankster and a homicidal maniac. His relationship with Batman is one of the most complex in comic book history, defined by their mutual obsession. Over the decades, the Joker has become an enduring icon of chaos and madness, embodying the antithesis of Batman’s order and justice.
