The final trailer for Todd Phillips’ Joker is here, and it shows a much darker side of Joaquin Phoenix’s Clown Prince of Crime than seen in previous clips.
While previous teasers and trailers posed the Joker as a downtrodden and misunderstood underdog, the new footage tracks his descent into villainhood. Starting with a clip of him talking down to his social worker, it then jumps to him seeing Robert De Niro’s character make fun of his stand-up routine on TV, which sparks a long, downward spiral that includes greasepaint, clown-masked flash mobs on the subway, a rebranding of his stand-up persona as The Joker, and a lot of unhinged laughs.
Here’s the film’s official synopsis, according to Dread Central:
Joker centers around the iconic arch-nemesis and is an original, standalone story not seen before on the big screen. The exploration of Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a man disregarded by society, is not only a gritty character study but also a broader cautionary tale.
Joker arrives in theaters October 4.
