The answer is simple. The Joker thrives on chaos and unpredictability. He has no origin, no backstory. Where Batman forever carries the tragedy of his parents’ murder, Joker is free from anything that would moor him to reality. And yet, movie adaptations of the character have become increasingly predictable, especially after The Dark Knight. Phoenix, Leto, and Keoghan are all playing variations of Ledger, just like Nicholson and Hamill riffed on Romero. We know that when the Joker shows up, something twisted will happen, even if he doesn’t have the word tattooed across his forehead. That time.
Furthermore, the incessant attention on the Joker ignores Batman’s many other wonderful villains. Believe it or not, Joker was just one of the bad guys in the Dark Knight’s rogue’s gallery, and not really his arch-nemesis until the late ’70s and ’80s. Batman’s first supervillain, Dr. Hugo Strange, punished the hero’s mind with his psychiatric games and punished his body with his army of Monster Men. The Penguin was another rich playboy with weird extracurriculars, Catwoman pushed his sense of morality, and Two-Face represented the worst possible reaction to personal tragedy. The Riddler and Ra’s al Ghul matched Batman’s intelligence while Scarecrow showed the dark side to his fear tactics.
And that doesn’t even get into the diamonds in the rough, fun and weird characters who rarely get the centerstage, such as the Ventriloquist and Scarface, Man-Bat, and Magpie. Grant Morrison additions such as Professor Pyg and Dr. Hurt are still out there, ready to blow the minds of unsuspecting audiences. Before anyone scoffs at the idea of taking these characters seriously, remember how Mr. Freeze was a big joke until Batman: The Animated Series gave him a tragic backstory.
Some of these characters have been done in movies (mostly by Nolan). Others don’t obviously seem to fit. But that’s kind of the point. Joker takes up so much space that filmmakers rarely take the time to even consider the possibilities these various rogues offer. The Batman started things in the right direction, reimagining the Riddler as John Kramer on the Dark Web, and The Penguin TV show is trying to do something different with Colin Farrell‘s character (with mixed results). But Keoghan’s cameo as an even more disfigured Joker hangs over the movie and its sequels like an albatross. Not because Keoghan’s version is so disgusting. Rather because it’s so dull, just one more example of a gross smiling weirdo.
Joker: Folie à Deux ends by suggesting that Arthur Fleck isn’t the true Joker. With its allusions to The Dark Knight, the movie suggests that Ricky will go on to be the criminal who plagues Bruce Wayne, now orphaned after the events of the first film. But the damage has already been done. By putting Arthur on the screen and on the stand, Phillips has thoroughly mined the character for every possible secret, any last remaining surprise. The anarchic energy that once made him so compelling is thoroughly gone, leaving behind nothing but a series of empty signifiers for some dude named with a Glasgow smile to pick up.
The Joker is dead. Long live absolutely anyone else in Arkham Asylum.
