David James of We Got This Covered definitely sounds like he wants this to happen and I won’t argue too vehemently against it, other than to say that Johnny Depp would have to put the characters of Jack Sparrow and Grindelwald in a blender and hit frappe to really make this character come to life in a convincing way. With how his divorce from Amber Heard has been going though he’s likely to have plenty of personal struggle and trauma to pull from given that no matter who a person believes and follows in that sordid tale it’s bound to come that Depp will be kind of ready to vent when all is said and done. The role of the Joker could be a big release for him but it could be that he’s not quite right for the role, given that there are others in line for it since the upcoming movie The Batman is likely going to need another villain if the sequel that’s already been talked about is to come out and be any good. A lot of people are already placing a lot of faith in the Pattinson version already, but it still feels as though talking about a sequel is kind of premature at this point. At least let the fan reactions to the trailer come out before starting such gossip, yeesh.
It’s kind of obvious that the Joker has been a favorite bad guy for a long time now, in fact it’s true since he’s been around for so long that he’s become an almost universally-known pop culture icon. He’s the one villain that Batman can’t ever appear to shake, no matter that he has no super powers that make him that much tougher to take down, or anything that might really make him a physical problem that Batman can’t figure out. He’s just nuts, and aside from that he’s a tactician despite his insanity, as he’s proven more than a few times over the years that as insane as he appears, he’s still able to pull one over on the dark knight every now and again. Of course Batman being the constantly prepared guy that he is usually comes up with a way to take on the Joker’s latest scheme and make it just go away. Batman has been bested a couple of times and he’s learned to take the Joker seriously, ironic as it is, since the villain has proven more than once that he’s not above doing anything to get his point across that he doesn’t care who he hurts or why, he’s just going to let chaos run its course and do what he wants because of his own reasons.
The one reason why Depp might not be the best individual for this character is that a lot of his characters still have a very definite reason for the things they do. Even Jack Sparrow, nut that he is at times, is a little more ordered than the Joker and he does have a heart that intrudes upon his so-called survival instincts now and again as he’s helped to save the day even when it’s not in his best interests. In fact one of the only characters I can think of that Depp has played that might prepare him for the role of the Joker is Mort Rainey from Secret Window, a movie that was adapted from a short story by Stephen King. Rainey is an author who slowly slips into his own brand of madness and develops a split personality that he thinks is another real person, though he has no idea that his madness has gone so far.
It’s a tough correlation to make when one is trying to see just how Depp could become the Joker, but the madness that Rainey deals with is the kind of chaotic and all-encompassing chaos that the Joker deals in, just from a different perspective. Obviously the Joker is very aware of what he does and has his own reasons, but the underlying chaos that drives him is the same that drives many a writer, and that’s the kind of nuttiness that is needed for someone like the Joker. It’s possible that Depp could become a decent character, as he wouldn’t be the playful one like Jack Nicholson, or the utterly psychotic lunatic like Heath Ledger. He also wouldn’t be the thug like Jared Leto, or the chronically depressed and mentally disturbed individual that Joaquin Phoenix portrayed. He’d be something else, and that’s a big up for him at this point.
Right now the jury’s out and who it will be that takes on the mantle of the Joker next, but Depp is definitely a consideration that many people are excited to see and hear about. If nothing else, it would be fun to see if he could do it.
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