Joker director releases new photo and confirms film's rating

We’ve seen a Joker performance receive an Oscar. Now we’ll see one receive an R rating.

Reported by Uproxx, earlier this past Sunday, Joker director Todd Phillips released a new image from the upcoming film on Instagram. It shows star Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck preparing to become the Clown Prince of Crime. Within the comments, a fan asked what the movie’s rating will be.

“It will be rated R,” Phillips responded. “I’ve been asked this a lot. Just assumed people knew. Sorry.” Honestly, there’s no need to apologize. The film’s trailer exudes a tone that doesn’t exactly scream “family-friendly.” We’ve seen a plethora of incarnations of the Joker, but this one looks to be the darkest one yet, and that’s saying something following Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance.

DC and Warner Brothers are in a unique position with its characters. Marvel has the “shared universe” method of filmmaking down to a science. DC seems to be going in a different direction, focusing on the individual characters rather than an overarching plot. It has worked with Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam! We can only hope that it continues with Joker, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), and The Batman.

Joker, also starring Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, and Frances Conroy, opens in theaters October 4.