As promised, an otherwise abysmal Wednesday brought us a new Joker trailer.
The latest glimpse at the surefire hit, which hits the Venice Film Festival for its world premiere later this week, further teases the work director Todd Phillips and company have put in to ensure the DC villain carves out his own space in cinema apart from the more traditional, Batman-adjacent supporting roles for which the character is most known.
Joaquin Phoenix, thankfully, is handling lead duties in the film, and is joined by a supporting cast that may or may not be signaling its welcomed cinematic influences with the presence of Robert De Niro. Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, and Marc Maron also star.
"There was a lot of fear, yeah," Phoenix recently told Total Filmof his decision to take on the role, which marks a notable departure from his usual filmography. "But I always say there's motivating fear and debilitating fear. There's the fear where you cannot make a fucking step, and there's the kind where it's like, 'OK, what do we do? That's not good enough.'"
The latter, Phoenix explained, is the kind of fear he loves because it pushes an artist "deeper and deeper" and guides you to work even harder at what you're trying to accomplish.
Expect to see the fruits of Phoenix's artistic labor when Joker mercifully arrives in theaters Oct. 4.
