Willem Dafoe has once again raised a bashful-yet-eager hand for his dream role: The Joker.
“You know, talk to Warner Bros… I floated an idea a while ago, but it didn’t quite happen, so,” the actor behind Norman Osborn / Green Goblin told Jimmy Fallon during his latest appearance on The Tonight Show.
“I didn’t really float it to them. I just mentioned it in an interview and then it kind of went out on the internet. But I thought it would be cool for me to play an imposter – like slipstreaming his thing.”
As some of you may recall, Willem Dafoe previously expressed his desire to portray a copycat Joker alongside Joaquin Phoenix with quite an intriguing twist while in conversation with GQ UK.
RELATED: The Alternate Ending For ‘Joker’ Almost Changed The Entire DC Universe
RELATED: First Look – Lady Gaga As Harley Quinn In The ‘Joker’ Sequel
“There is something interesting about, like, if there was a Joker imposter. So it would be possible to have not duelling Jokers but someone that [claims] to be the Joker that isn’t the Joker,” explained Willem Dafoe.
“And that kind of opens up the possibility of an interesting story, particularly if you had Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, and then you had someone who was either imitating or riffing off what he did. I fantasised about that. But other than that I am not talking to anybody [about it], you’re the first one.”
Based on the leaked footage we’ve glimpsed from the set of the forthcoming sequel, Joker: Folie à deux, which appears to depict multiple Jokers int the same scene (see: below), director Todd Philips may have actually drawn inspiration from Dafoe’s unofficial pitch. But given details are still minimal, at this stage, it’s impossible to know.
Joker: Folie à deux starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, understood to be a psychological thriller of a musical, has officially set a release date: October 4th of 2024.
