User:TheJoebro64/drafts/JokerMovies

The Joker, a supervillain who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics, has appeared in various films since his inception. Created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson as the archenemy of the superhero Batman, the Joker has been adapted to serve as Batman's nemesis and as a standalone character. The Joker is considered one of the greatest film villains of all time, and the Batman films that feature the Joker are typically the most successful. The Joker's first film appearance was in the 1966 Batman film, an adaptation of the 1966–1968 Batman television series. He was portrayed by Cesar Romero and, like the television series and contemporary Batman comics, is depicted as a goofy, thieving prankster.

Jack Nicholson portrayed a darker version of the Joker in Tim Burton's Batman (1989), which depicts the character as a psychopathic mobster. The role was a defining performance in Nicholson's career, and his portrayal of the Joker was considered to overshadow Michael Keaton's as Batman. Nicholson's performance was considered a major factor in the commercial success of the film, which grossed over $400 million and became the second-highest-grossing film of 1989. Nicholson was intended to reprise the role in the sequel Batman Unchained prior to its cancellation in the late 1990s. The Joker was subsequently portrayed by Heath Ledger in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (2008), depicting the character as an avatar of chaos and anarchy. Ledger's performance as the Joker was widely acclaimed and won him a posthumous Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the first acting Oscar ever won for a superhero film. Like Nicholson, Ledger's performance was considered a major factor in The Dark Knight commercial success; it grossed over $1 billion, making it the highest-grossing film of 2008.

Jared Leto portrays the Joker in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), a shared universe of DC Comics-based films that began with Man of Steel in 2013. Leto made his debut as the Joker in Suicide Squad (2016), which depicts the character as a flamboyant crime boss. Most of Leto's scenes were cut from the released film, and his performance polarized critics and audiences. Leto became the first actor to portray the Joker in more than one live-action film when he reprised the role for Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021), the director's cut of Justice League (2017). Joaquin Phoenix starred in a standalone Joker film in 2019, directed by Todd Phillips. Joker provides a possible origin story for the character, depicting him as a failed stand-up comedian who descends into insanity and nihilism. Although the film polarized critics and generated concerns of inspiring real-world violence, Joker grossed over $1 billion worldwide, the first and only R-rated film film to do so. Phoenix's performance received widespread acclaim and earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor, making Ledger and Phoenix the second pair of actors to win for portraying the same character in two different films.

The Joker has also appeared in many animated films over the years. Mark Hamill provided the character's voice in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000)—both set in the DC Animated Universe—as well as in the 2016 adaptation of Batman: The Killing Joke (1988).

Batman (1989)
American actor Jack Nicholson portrays the Joker in the 1989 film Batman, directed by Tim Burton. The Joker had been present since the screenplay's earliest drafts by Tom Mankiewicz in 1983. A number of actors, including Tim Curry, David Bowie, John Lithgow, Ray Liotta, and James Woods, were considered for the role; Robin Williams campaigned hard for the part, while Burton wanted to cast John Glover. However, Nicholson had been Warner Bros.' top choice for the role since 1980, and he was the only actor producers Jon Peters and Peter Guber seriously considered. Nicholson was cast in mid-1988, and reduced his standard $10 million fee to $6 million in exchange for a cut of the film's earnings in addition to receiving top billing. Nicholson also demanded that all of his scenes be shot in a three-week block, but the schedule lapsed into 106 days.

In Batman, the Joker is the alias of Jack Napier, a psychopathic mobster who serves as the right-hand man of Gotham City crime boss Carl Grissom. Grissom attempts to have Napier killed; while Napier survives the assassination attempt, he is disfigured when he falls into a vat of chemicals during an encounter with Batman (Michael Keaton). Napier kills Grissom to take over Gotham's criminal underworld and wage war on Batman. Burton described the film's main theme as the "duel of the freaks", with Batman and the Joker both being social outsiders. Unlike traditional depictions of the Batman mythos, Batman Joker is the one who killed Batman's parents Thomas and Martha Wayne in Batman's origin story. The change was introduced by Burton and was opposed by Batman screenwriter Sam Hamm, who considered the change "grotesque and vulgar".

As a part of Nicholson's contract, he was allowed to have approval over the makeup designer to create the Joker's design. Nicholson chose Nick Dudman as his makeup designer. Dudman used an acrylic-based makeup for the bleached white face. Dudman cited the scene in the art gallery where Napier gets splashed with water by Vicki Vale as being the most difficult effect to achieve. To create the smile, Dudman did a regular face cast of Nicholson with a relaxed face, then asked him to do another one while pulling the largest grin he could muster. Dudman attempted to sculpt a smile that was always there but would take full effect when Nicholson smiled in the makeup; he also worked to ensure that the prosthetics would not dilute Nicholson's face.

The Dark Knight (2008)
Following several unsuccessful attempts to revive the Batman film franchise after Batman & Robin critical failure, Warner Bros. and director Christopher Nolan made the 2005 reboot film Batman Begins. The film ends with an Easter egg teasing the Joker, with Batman finding a Joker playing card at a crime scene. Nolan did not intend for the scene to set up a sequel, but had an idea for a sequel that involved Batman coming into conflict with the Joker as he continued his war on crime. In 2006, Australian actor Heath Ledger was cast to portray the Joker in the sequel, The Dark Knight (2008). Paul Bettany, Lachy Hulme, Adrien Brody, Steve Carell, and Robin Williams expressed interest in the role, but Nolan had wanted to work with Ledger on a number of projects in the past, and had approached him for the role of Batman in Batman Begins.

In The Dark Knight, the Joker rises from Gotham's criminal underworld as he seeks to undermine Batman's influence and plunge the city into anarchy. The Joker desires to upset social order through crime, and comes to define himself by his conflict with Batman. This take on the Joker has been interpreted as a metaphor for the terrorist threats the United States faced during the War on Terror in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Ledger described The Dark Knight Joker as "psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy". The film's portrayal of the character was influenced by the Joker's first appearance in Batman #1 (1940) and the graphic novels Batman: The Killing Joke (1988) and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth (1989). To prepare for the role, Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character's posture, voice, and personality, and kept a diary in which he recorded the Joker's thoughts and feelings. The Joker bears a Glasgow smile in the film, and his trademark chalk-white skin and red lips are makeup rather than the result of chemical bleaching.

Ledger's casting was initially met with backlash from the general public and from within Warner Bros., with The Dark Knight co-writer Jonathan Nolan recalling that "we were fucking pilloried for it. 'This is a disaster. The worst casting decision ever made.'" However, public perception began to change after the release of the first trailer in 2007, and much of the film's marketing campaign focused on Ledger's role. When The Dark Knight was released in June 2008, six months after Ledger's death from an accidental prescription drug overdose, Ledger's performance as the Joker received widespread critical acclaim and became a cultural phenomenon. The Dark Knight became the first superhero film to gross over $1 billion at the worldwide box office—making it the highest-grossing film of 2008—and its success was credited to the popularity of Ledger's Joker. Ledger also won numerous accolades for his performance, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor—making him the second actor to win a posthumous Oscar and the first to win for a performance in a superhero film.

DC Extended Universe
Jared Leto portrays the Joker in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), a shared universe of DC Comics-based films that began with Man of Steel in 2013. Ryan Gosling was initially offered the role but declined because he did not want to commit to multiple films; Leto was ultimately cast in December 2014. The Joker was intended to make his DCEU debut in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), but was cut and only referenced in the final film.