Joker Director on His Approach of Not Following the Comics

A lot of DCEU fans are excited to go back to the gritty side of things with Todd Phillips' Joker, and the director has said that he won't be following any specific comics for the film. While some fans don't sit well with his decision, Phillips explains his goal as to why he wants to bring an original take for his film.

Talking to USA Today, Phillips said, "My goal wasn't to take Joaquin Phoenix and put him in the comic book universe. My goal was to take comic books and put them in the Joaquin Phoenix universe."

Phillips also goes on to say that Phoenix himself was aware that other Joker actors had a ‘darkness' they had to live in when they played the character. "I would say he's unusually comfortable in that space," said Phillips.

Just by looking at the trailer, you can see that a lot of influence on this film actually comes from producer Martin Scorsese's filmography. You can see a lot of De Niro's Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver as well as his Rupert Pupkin from The King of Comedy; heck, De Niro himself is in this film playing a talk show host who gets his program hijacked by the Joker—something that happened in KoC, only De Niro was the "joker" in that film.

Even though Phillips says there's no comic influence, you can clearly see some broad strokes of the DC universe still in there. The costume is pretty much comic-inspired, and we have some Gotham mainstays like the Waynes and Arkham Asylum. Even the aim of the film to tell Joker's origin is something out of The Killing Joke.

Catch Joker when it hits theaters Oct. 4.

See Also: Joaquin Phoenix Reveals How He Got His Maniacal Laugh for DC's Joker Movie