DiCaprio is apparently WB’s dream choice for The Joker

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

When it was announced that an origin story about The Joker was being made at Warner Bros. with director Todd Phillips, the weirdest part of the news wasn’t the idea itself, but the fact that Martin Scorsese would be producing the movie. The director has avoided large studio fare for the most part, so this is for sure out of his wheelhouse. But word is the studio wants him not only for his talent but because his involvement means one of the world’s biggest stars will be much easier to nab.

THR got word that WB is hoping that Scorsese’s involvement will lure none other than Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio to play the lead role of the classic Batman villain. The idea behind the casting is that this new slate of spinoff movies – of which has no connection to the greater DCEU – will feature a greater degree of pedigree and class than larger blockbusters, and having Scorsese and DiCaprio would bring both of those things to the table.  The hope is to create projects akin to Christopher Nolan’s THE DARK KNIGHT trilogy, sticking to a more grounded realm (and could maybe result in more awards-caliber flicks).

Though this may be the goal, there has been no offer to DiCaprio yet, and even Scorsese’s deal has yet to be finalized. This is supposedly the studio’s dream, and Scorsese and Leo have worked together several times on movies like THE AVIATOR, THE DEPARTED and THE WOLF OF WALL STREET. This would be a major pairing, and would really sell the movie as a project that raises above general superhero fare. Even if DiCaprio says no (which is highly likely), the studio is still aiming to get a major A-lister for the part (Jake Gyllenhaal, anyone?).

Right now, Jared Leto is playing Joker for the DCEU, having appeared in SUICIDE SQUAD and is set for the sequel and a planned JOKER AND HARLEY QUINN flick. The news is that Leto was caught off-guard by the origin story news, and has already expressed his disapproval of the idea of having two Jokers around to his agents.

Obviously, casting DiCaprio as Joker would be, possibly, the biggest comic book movie news ever, and I don’t even need to say how excited I would be to see that movie. I would be all the excited. Infinite excited. I would miss the birth of my child to see this movie opening night. A Scorsese-DiCaprio pairing in the superhero realm is too good to be true, and will probably never happen given the latter’s avoiding of franchise properties like this. But maybe if he can be convinced this is more a drama than a franchise film and is merely a one-off, he will take it for the sake of exploring a rich character.