As James Gunn Celebrates The Joker's 84th Anniversary, I Have Ideas For Who Should Play The DCU's Clown Prince

As the current ringleader for the DCU’s opening chapter “Gods and Monsters,” James Gunn has a lot of fans paying attention to his every word and move in the long lead-up to Superman's release in 2025. Having only recently shared an intriguing callback to the Man of Steel’s first costume, Gunn once again looked to the past when sharing a post honoring DC icon The Joker 84 years after his first appearance in Batman #1. And now I can’t help but think about who could play the Clown Prince of Crime in an upcoming DCU movie.

Gunn took to Instagram and Threads to pay tribute to one of the greatest antagonists in all of fiction, even if the face-painted loon didn’t quite look like it yet from that 1940 debut.

For what it’s worth, the Peacemaker creator got a lot of love from fans for the choice to slot Bill Finger’s name in ahead of Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson, considering how long Finger’s key efforts went largely ignored for attribution. (It was the subject of the acclaimed documentary Batman and Bill.)

With so many amazing Joker movie performances already out there, with Barry Keoghan’s The Batman appearance and deleted scene serving as the most recent (at least until Joker: Folie à Deux hits theaters) it’s understandable why James Gunn doesn’t seem to be extremely eager to confirm that a new Mr. J. is on the way. Especially without a clear project for the anarchic baddie to appear in. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still put our hopes to work in dream-casting The Joker for the DCU, so let’s look at some actors I think would be fantastic in the role.

Dev Patel

Having burst onto the scene with Skins and Slumdog Millionaire as he transitioned from teen to adult, Dev Patel has developed quite the diverse career in the years since, going from The Newsroom to Chappie to The Green Knight, arguably culminating in his directorial debut, the highly acclaimed action-thriller Monkey Man. The latter could potentially usher Patel in as Hollywood’s Next Big Action Star, but I think he could easily lay his character -development chops on top of that physical dexterity for a stellar take on The Joker like no other. (It’s in the eyes.)

Walton Goggins

One drum I'll continue beating until I'm dust: Justified fave Walton Goggins could play any role and he'd be in at least the 97th percentile of all possible performances. Even his most blockbuster roles are as grounded and lived-in as the Southern-bred actor himself, and his fantastic work in Fallout's Ghoul proved that not even facial prosthetics and a missing nose affected his work much after he got the hang of it. I know The Joker is classically not a Southern character, and he wouldn't need to be in this case either, but can you imagine Goggins bringing the unbridled, backwoods chaos of his Vice Principals character to Gotham City or Metropolis?

Leslie Odom Jr.

I'm not sure if my subconscious was parsing through expectations for Todd Phillips’ jukebox musical approach to Joker’s sequel, but Leslie Odom Jr. is a theater-trained actor who is well seasoned in performances that could be key to informing a captivating Joker performance. He can go from quiet and contemplative to loud and boisterous, or from charming and dapper to intimidating and devious, and his stage experience also means he’s studied in commanding attention in large spaces. Not to mention he portrayed Hamilton “villain” Aaron Burr (which he had trouble letting go of), and has some DC experience having played Gotham’s Arkham bomber Ian Hargrove.

Cameron Monaghan

Speaking of Gotham, I still haven’t completely allowed myself to believe that the show’s proto-Jokers, Jeremiah and Jerome Valeska, ever truly left us. Cameron Monaghan portrayed the brothers with an increasing sense of scene-stealing mania across the five seasons, which ended on a flash-forward that fully dipped the character into Joker-dom. He rocked in the part and loves being in the Joker family (as he told CinemaBlend back in 2019), and it doesn’t even matter that James Gunn’s DCU is coming directly after all manner of multiverse shenanigans, because I think Monaghan could pull the role off without repeating anything from his Gotham stint.

Rahul Kohli

As a key player in Mike Flanagan's horror-verse, The Haunting of Bly Manor and Fall of the House of Usher co-star Rahul Kohli is quite adept at crafting characters who win viewers over with warm smiles, all while suffering below the surface. But while some of his most familiar characters skew more dramatic, the actor himself is a hoot, and each of his DC-tethered TV roles have played into his arch nature, from Supergirl's Jack Spheer to iZombie's Ravi to Harley Quinn's Scarecrow. I'm not even against a Joker with UK origins, if it came down to it.

Alan Tudyk

Like Cameron Monaghan, Alan Tudyk makes this list because audiences already know he makes a damn good live-action DC TV villain (Doom Patrol's Mr. Nobody) as well as a damned good Joker himself, as heard in Harley Quinn. Gunn is certainly aware of how talented Tudyk is, as the Firefly vet is voicing Doctor Phosphorus as part of the Creature Commandos cast, but not even that is stopping me from tossing his purple fedora in the ring to take on the Joker in live-action. The voice is too good to only be heard in two dimensions.

While I can't readily expect James Gunn & Co. to opt for any of my hopeful choices above, most of the actors who were cast as The Joker weren't readily expected to do great jobs, and the vast majority of them did. For now, though, we'll have to make do with Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix's second at-Bat when Joker: Folie à Deux hits the 2024 movie schedule on Friday, October 4.