Warner Bros. Plans To Cast Leonardo DiCaprio In The Joker Origin Film

A few weeks ago, it was announced that Warner Bros. would be making a standalone Joker film focusing on his origin and separate from the DCEU, with Academy Award winning filmmaker Martin Scorcese attached as a producer, though his deal hasn’t been finalized. Now The Hollywood Reporter has just reported that the studio is planning to add Academy Award winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio to the film, probably to star as the titular character.

Scorcese and DiCaprio have worked together before in such films as The Departed, Shutter Island and The Wolf of Wall Street, so this choice makes sense. In fact, it seems Warner Bros.’ plan was to get Leonardo DiCaprio involved through Martin Scorcese. No deal has been offered to DiCaprio so far though.

Since the film is to be a part of the series of DC standalone films separate from the DCEU, not having Jared Leto starring as the titular clown prince of crime in the Joker origin film was the plan all along, considering that Jared Leto is set to return as The Joker in the Suicide Squad sequel and a Joker and Harley Quinn film with Margot Robbie returning as Harley Quinn, all set in the DCEU. That said, THR also reported that Jared Leto is unhappy with idea of the existence of more than one Joker at the same time.

DiCaprio seems like an obvious choice for the film, considering that he has worked with Scorcese multiple times. And with Warner Bros. getting this iconic duo involved on the project, it seems the studio is taking the film seriously and we could be looking at the next DC Oscar contender since Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.

However, if Leonardo DiCaprio is going to star The Joker, he may seem like an unlikely choice for some fans. But Leonardo DiCaprio has proven time and time again that he has quite the talent for acting, being considered by many one of the best actors working today. And he has proven he can play a darkly comedic anti-hero in The Wolf of Wall Street (a role that got him an Oscar nomination) as well as a straight-up menacing villain in Django: Unchained. So, if he does get the role, there’s a good chance he’ll surprise us, in a good way.

The Scorcese-produced Joker origin film is set to be directed by Todd Phillips, director of The Hangover series, and has no release date as of yet. We’ll be back as soon as more details from the project are revealed.

Written by: Miguel Coelho

Source: Heroic Hollywood 

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