Gird your loins because Batman’s city of Gotham may be getting an award-winning update. It’s already become common knowledge that there is some kind of Joker origin story coming in the form a film because, somehow, Warner Bros. got Martin Scorsese to produce it. I mean, sure, there’s also the director of The Hangover, Todd Phillips, directing – but Martin-fucking-Scorsese. We thought that was the tip of the iceberg but then came the titanic-sized rumor that Leonardo DiCaprio may play the Joker himself.
We are not prepared for this kind of content and, for once in very long time, we’re actually excited for a superhero movie. With the news that studio execs are trying to get Leo to play the titular villain in the film, the Scorsese bomb does make sense. After all, Leo has done some of his best work in the director’s films, including The Aviator, Gangs of New York, The Departed, Shutter Island, and The Wolf of Wall Street.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio wants either “DiCaprio or another A-lister to play the [Joker] as a gritty crime boss in a Scorsese-esque Gotham underworld.” It signals a new push for ailing movie genre that (besides Wonder Woman) has lagged at the box office. The best news is that, with this particular film, we won’t have to watch other DC Comics films like Suicide Squad or Batman v. Superman because the Joker origin film is taking place outside of their extended universe of movies.