Willem Dafoe is still interested in brandishing the Joker's garish grin for Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Studios.

"I floated an idea a while ago, but it didn't quite happen," Dafoe told Jimmy Fallon. After The Tonight Show host pressed the actor on the details of his idea, the four-time Academy Award nominee said, "I thought it would be cool for me to play an imposter, like slipstreaming his thing."

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As Dafoe alludes to, this is not the first time he has mentioned the idea of playing an imposter Joker. The Green Goblin actor introduced the concept in a GQ interview back in March 2022. "There is something interesting about, like, if there was a Joker Imposter," he said at the time. "So it would be possible to have not duelling Jokers but someone that says to be the Joker that isn't the Joker... if you had Joaquin Phoenix's Joker, and then you had someone who was either imitating or riffing off what he did." Dafoe has long been a fan-favorite to play DC's Clown Prince of Crime, often appearing on many wishlists whenever the role has come up for grabs.

DC's Deck Is Full of Jokers

Phoenix is set to continue his Oscar-winning portrayal of the Joker in Joker: Folie à Deux, Todd Phillips' follow-up to his 2019 Best Picture nominee that grossed over $1 billion worldwide. Lady Gaga's Harley Quinn will join Phoenix's Arthur Fleck, along with Zazie Beetz's Sophie Drummond, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener and Jacob Lofland. In October 2022, Gleeson revealed that Phoenix's awe-inspiring performance from the first Joker is what convinced him to accept a role in Folie à Deux.

Meanwhile, Gleeson's The Banshees of Inisherin co-star and upcoming Oscar competitor for Best Supporting Actor Barry Keoghan is also expected to reprise his role as the Joker in Matt Reeves' The Batman franchise. Reeves is currently working on the script for The Batman Part II, which is slated for a late-2025 release, but it is currently unknown if the Joker will appear in the sequel. "Obviously I'd love another crack," Keoghan said in January. "I've got a ton of back work done on him. If an opportunity does arise but, you know, they make the call, and I've got to respect that."

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Though Phoenix and Keoghan are expected to continue their respective iterations of Mr. J under the new "DC Elseworlds" banner, DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran have yet to cast the DC Universe's mainline version of the Joker. The DCU's new Batman will debut in The Brave and the Bold, along with Damian Wayne's Robin and several other members of the Bat-Family. Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Studios have yet to reveal the villain of the upcoming feature, though fans expect the Joker to play a part at some point in the new Batman's cinematic future. With Damian Wayne entering the fold, it appears likely that the new Batman will be in his late-30s or early-40s, which potentially opens the door for an actor in Dafoe's age-range to tackle an older version of the Dark Knight's arch enemy.

In the meantime, fans can look forward to their next dose of the Joker in Joker: Folie à Deux, which hits theaters on Oct. 4, 2024.

Source: YouTube