“Willem Dafoe as the Joker!” “Willem Dafoe as the Joker!” For the longest time, fans have been campaigning to see the American-Italian actor as The Clown Prince of Crime in a Batman film.
Dafoe’s facial expressions, his look, his build, his voice, and, of course, his laugh are perfectly suited for the role. There’s just something sinister but playful behind his dark, piercing eyes. When you think of Joker, Willem Dafoe’s face and laugh come to mind immediately. He’s literally the picture-perfect casting, but it’s never happened for some reason or the other.
Although we’ve seen him in the DCEU before (he played Vulko in Aquaman), his talents seemed wasted on a less important role that doesn’t truly showcase his acting range.
A Youtube video by Muhammad XAchraf (with 1.8 million views and counting), however, gives us a glimpse of what Willem Dafoe could like like as the Joker. And it’s as spectacular as we imagined.
At 65, Billy (as he was known in his childhood) is a little older than the character has been portrayed in films, comics and animated TV shows. That’s also older than Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck, who was said to be around 32 to 33-years-old. That said, we’ve seen a Joker in his late 50s in some of the comic books too.
So is Willem Dafoe too old to play Joker? Yes and no.
The actor recently gave an absolutely brilliant performance alongside Robert Pattinson in the critically acclaimed film by Robert Eggers, The Lighthouse. Personally, seeing the two play bitter enemies alongside each other again would be a dream come true. There’s something special about their chemistry onscreen, and it’s definitely something that could carry over to a Batman and Joker film.
I’m pretty sure nobody would object to seeing Dafoe take on this role, especially considering the amazing job he did in 2002’s Spider-Man as Green Goblin and again in Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021.
Seeing him in the powered face with green hair and dark red lipstick in the video above certainly leaves a strong impression. If you weren’t rooting for the man, you probably are now.
But there’s good news.
Willem Dafoe Wants To Play Joker Opposite Joaquin Phoenix
Willem Dafoe has played some incredible roles in his career and having recently revisited his role as the Green Goblin in the latest Spider-Man: No Way Home, we got to relieve his incredible mad-villain acting skills. But is it possible we get to see him play the craziest of villains ever, we are talking about Batman’s nemesis: The Joker.
Whether or not could Willem Dafoe pull the character of The Joker is out of the question, we’ve seen his career trajectory for a long time and what he’s capable of. The four-time Oscar nominee is one solid, versatile actor and we just saw one more time how crazy he can get as a villain.
Dafoe also expressed that he finds it especial to play the role of a villain as it allows the actors to let their darkest side go out, he says it’s fun “‘cause you can do things that you can’t do in real life, it’s fun to play with your dark side”.
But Willem Dafoe has even more interesting plans for how he wants to play Joker.
The 66-year-old has stated that he likes the idea of playing as a second Joker, in a possible sequel of The Joker, directed by Todd Phillips starring Joaquin Phoenix as The Joker. This is an idea that’s been previously explored in the Batman comics, that there are multiple copycats of the Joker that follow the villain or use his image for their own benefits.
Dafoe thinks it would be an interesting idea to be portrayed in a film, and since there’s no Batman -at least for now- in that universe, it would really focus more on these two Jokers. “So it would be possible to have not duelling Jokers but someone that [claims] to be the Joker that isn’t the Joker”.
Willem Dafoe’s Joker would be something of an impostor, maybe even a crazy follower that really wants to take credit for what the Joker did and claims to be the real deal. And it could actually end up being an incredibly thrilling experience.
We’ve seen what Arthur Fleck started in The Joker, and how this insane revolution would probably follow him if he wanted. So now we could be facing even more catastrophic events if there were to be two Jokers leading two opposite factions of the insane wave of madness and insanity.
Is it going to happen?
As of the moment, no, there are no plans for this happening right now. And even Willem Dafoe stated that it is just a fantasy he’s had, but he’s not currently in the talks for a project like this nor anything like that. And chances are this is completely true because, if he were to be currently involved in such a project, the studio would probably have him be radio silent about it.
The truth is we’d love to see Dafoe as the Joker, he has the potential to be one of the best, if not the best interpretation of the comic book clown king we’ve ever seen on the big screen. And with Joaquin Phoenix, who even won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his Joker character, it could be something epic.