If you're of the mind that it would be a disservice to the Joker to have his upcoming Joaquin Phoenix-starring standalone movie Joker be of the PG-13 (or sunnier) variety then you're in luck, as the film's director, Todd Phillips, outright said that that will not be the case.
As pointed out by IndieWire, Phillips made the comment to an inquiring fan via the comment section of this Instagram post, in which he also said that the finishing touches were being applied to the not-so-far-off film:
In that comment section, a curious person wonders what the film's MPAA rating will be, to which Phillips matter of factly said "it will be Rated R. I’ve been asked this a lot. Just assumed people knew.” This move isn't nearly unprecedented for superhero films, as 'R' was previously the letter that sat next to Watchmen, Logan, Deadpool and a bunch of others, but it's good to know nonetheless.
IndieWire adds that Joker will be set in the early '80s and feature Phoenix as stand-up comic Arthur Fleck, whose failed attempts at fame push him into the Gotham City underworld. In addition to Phoenix, the cast will also include Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, and Marc Maron. The movie is said to have the same tone as '70s era Scorsese movies like Taxi Driver. Phoenix also said it'll feel more like a low-budget indie flick, as opposed to a massively budgeted comic book film.
As we said earlier, it's not so far off. You can see Joker in theaters starting October 4.
