Batman's The Joker: the History of Joker in TV and Film

The Joker is one of the most iconic characters in pop culture. He’s been leveraged by DC in nearly every merchandising campaign centered on superheroes of the comic company. He’s also been portrayed by some of the best and most talented actors in the many films and tv shows in which he appears.

Folks who aren’t obsessed with all things DC would never guess that The Joker debuted in a comic book issue in 1940. There’s some question about who had the most influence on his creation. Jerry Robinson and Bob Kane certainly share the credit, although Bill Finger had an impact on his development. He was supposed to be killed off during his first appearance, but became a longtime supervillain as a foil to Batman.

He was at first created as a terrifying and psychopathic supervillain, but became a bit more subdued and comical during the 50s, only to go back to being dark and evil in the 1970s, and has since been in some truly dark story lines. Just look at Folie a Deux! THAT’S DARK AF!

The Joker is often seen as a modern representation of the trickster archetype. Shockingly, he doesn’t have one true origin story. AND, like Batman, doesn’t have any supernatural powers. His criminal insanity and lack of empathy are his greatest powers.

The Joker became even more popular after the introduction of his love interest Harley Quinn, who was created by Paul Dini for the Bruce Timm Batman animated tv series in the 90s. She of course has gone on to fame and fandom in her own right!

I am aware that lots of comic book and even movie folks know all about his appearances in the comics, but what I want to explore is the many onscreen portrayals of the character, in part because of the recent Joker film, Folie a Deux. I think the new film is art, and that even dark depressing nihilistic art like it has a place in the world. As a film critic, though, I more or less hated it… and reviewed it HERE.

THE HISTORY OF THE JOKER IN TV AND FILM:

So…let’s start with Cesar Romero and the original Batman tv series in 1966. Romero was the first actor to portray the character, and he had a signature mustache, which he had kept his whole career. He refused to shave it for the role, so they just spackled white makeup over it and called it a day. His was the most camp in all the representations of the character, in part because he was playing up to the flamboyance and ridiculousness of the show as a whole.

Here are some of his best moments:

In Tim Burton’s 1989 film, Jack Nicholson picked up the mantel. As an established and Oscar-winning actor, he was able to leverage a deal where he earned a percentage of the box office sales, which gave him a payout of somewhere short of $100 million. He said he approached his portrayal as a piece of pop art. He beat out other potential actors for the role that included Tim Curry, John Lithgow, David Bowie, Ray Lotta, and James Woods. Robin Williams lobbied heavily for the part, but Nicholson was the studio’s top choice as far back as during his filming on The Witches of Eastwick.

“You can call him Joker”

Next to bring Joker to live onscreen was Heath Ledger in Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to his 2005 Batman reboot, The Dark Knight. It was the highest grossing film of the year, and earned over $1 billion at the box office. Unfortunately Ledger died before being recognized for his work, winning a posthumous Oscar for his performance. He died in January of an accidental overdose, but the film was released in July. The Dark Knight screenwriters ( and ) wanted to make The Joker much scarier than the way he was portrayed by Jack Nicholson, referencing villains like Hannibal Lecter and Darth Vader as influences for their version of the character.

There’s a reason Ledger won an Oscar:

Then, most recently, we have several other method-inspired actors who lended their style to the character, to greater or lesser success. One actor has been berated and maligned for his work, Jared Leto. He portrayed the Joker as a crazed lunatic in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, receiving nearly universal vitriol from both fans and critics. Leto described his role as “nearly Shakespearean”. During the entire production, he never broke character. He based his portrayal on literature on shamanism and on the various characters David Bowie embodied during his career.

Here is the Behind the Scenes special video from Warner Brothers about Jared Leto’s version of Joker

and how could we forget the Oscar-winning performance by Joaquin Pheonix as Arthur Fleck in the 2019 Todd Phillips film Joker, which famously broke a billion at the box office? In what was essentially the anti-60s Batman movie, Phillips presented an origin story for the character that was a cynical take borne of the

In the Matt Reeves film released in 2022, there was a brief cameo of The Joker played by Barry Keoghan, but he was credited as “unseen Arkham prisoner”. Too bad we didn’t see more of him! Since Reeves is starting production on Batman 2, also starring Robert Pattinson, and Keoghan is interested in reprising the role, maybe we’ll get to see what he might do with the character!

Here is the deleted scene between Batman and Joker in the film. Seeing it might make you start a petition to get him into the next movie!

Then there’s the current incarnation that broke so many records in 2019 and sang his way into your brain with Lady Gaga as a loose version of Harley in Folie a Deux, Joaquin Pheonix. One thing I learned talking to the composer from 2019’s Joker, Hildur Guðnadóttir, was that the music she created for the film was an inspiration for Pheonix’s portrayal. The concept behind the first film was a very un-superhero film about a DC character. It was perfectly timed with the public’s growing ennui around superhero movies, and it made over a billion at the box office. Pheonix lost 52 pounds to portray Arthur Fleck, and got an Oscar for his trouble.

Here they talk about the making of Joker, behind the scenes:

and of course we can’t forget one of the best portrayals, that offered in the voice of Mark Hamill for the animated series. Did anyone really know just how good Mark Hamill was at voices before his Joker?

Hamill’s voice talents were used for the game Batman: Arkham City, among others. Here’s a great video of his work, as well as the dearly departed Kevin Conroy, who voiced the animated Batman so beautifully:

Here is a compilation of Mark Hamill doing the Joker laugh and frankly it shows the true depth of his talent. Watch if you dare!

It’s also worthy noting that the actor most famous for portraying Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Brent Spiner, lended his voice as Joker in 2011’s Young Justice. He’s great, as always, but you just can’t beat Mark Hamill for iconic Joker!

Here are all his scenes in the Young Justice episode “The Lady, or the Tigress?” from 2021:

As to what we contribute to the world of Joker art, we have some great images from the Batman animated series, including a key set up, which includes the cels AND the original background (which is very rare!) and just knowing Luke Skywalker aka Joker was part of the making of these cartoons is reason enough to love it!