The origin story for DC Comics’ most unnerving villain looks like a creepy affair in the first trailer for the “Joker” movie.
Joaquin Phoenix takes up the story of Arthur Fleck, a slight man who doesn’t seem to have much going his way, but who somehow changes and transforms into the madman.
The trailer shows Phoenix as Fleck speaking with some sort of social worker, taking care of his mother, going on a date, attending a comedy show, walking towards Arkham State Hospital, among other scenes. Madness and uneasy saturate each scene.
“My mother always tells me to smile and put on a happy face,” are the first lines spoken by Fleck. “She told me I had a purpose … to bring laughter and joy to the world.”
From what is known about the Joker, the line resonates with irony as well as sadness.
“Is it just me? Or is it getting crazier out there?” Fleck asks at another point in the trailer.
Phoenix picks up the mantle from previous actors who have portrayed the damaged archenemy of Batman, including Jack Nicholson (1989’s “Batman”), Heath Ledger (2008’s “The Dark Knight”), Jared Leto (2016’s “Suicide Squad”), and Cesar Romero in the 1960s campy TV series.
In some scenes Phoenix seems to channel Ledger’s performance, which won him a posthumous Oscar.
The trailer, which runs a solid 2:24 minutes, was posted to Twitter on Wednesday.
Director Todd Phillips introduced the trailer to an audience of movie theater owners at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
Phillips said there’s been a lot written about the film and not much has been all that accurate.
“But that’s what happens when you set out to make an origin story about a character who doesn’t have an origin,” he said of Batman’s nemesis.
Plus, he’d rather it be a surprise for audiences when it hits theater in October. He’s even playing a little coy with his own studio, telling them he couldn’t describe it. When they asked for a genre, at least, he said, “It’s a tragedy.”
“Joker” is set for theaters on October 4.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
