First teaser trailer for 'Joker' sees Joaquin Phoenix descend into madness

The first teaser trailer for Joker has dropped and the film is keeping its cards close to its chest.

Starring Joaquin Phoenix in the title role, the first footage from Todd Phillips’ Batman spin-off offers up snippets from his life to establish how the villain came to be.

Opening in a psychiatrist’s office, a doctor asks Arthur Fleck/Joker: “Does it help to have someone to talk to?” before the scene switches to our protagonist walking down a street and up some stairs.

“My mom used to tell me to smile and put on a happy face,” he says. “I thought my purpose was to bring laughter and joy to the world.”

Later, Arthur is seen putting on clown make-up, getting beaten up – twice – though he doesn’t look at all fazed the second time. There’s a scene of him in a doughnut shop with Zazie Beetz’s character, another of him walking to Arkham hospital as well as talking to Bryan Tyree Henry’s character behind some mesh.

“Gotham has lost its way,” Thomas Wayne says on the TV in another scene. “What kind of character would do something so cold-blooded?”

Arthur can then be heard saying “I used to think my life is a tragedy, but it’s a comedy,” as well as performing on stage in front of a crown of Jokers before he is depicted in his full red suit walking down the street.

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Robert De Niro’s character looks like he’s a talk show host and further adds to The King of Comedy references in Joker.

The suits Phoenix wears, both in the trailer and on the poster, are ridiculously similar to the ones De Niro’s Rupert Pupkin wears in the 1982 movie and the plot about an aspiring comedian going mad is said to be what Phillips was going for with his own story.

In Martin Scorsese’s film, Pupkin stalks and kidnaps a talk show host in order to force him to give him a slot to perform live on TV too so maybe Arthur will do the same.

Here is what people have to say about the first trailer:

Marc Maron, who also appears in the new DC film, described it in an interview with NME:

Here’s the brief film synopsis:

Frances Conroy, Bill Camp, Glenn Fleshler, Shea Whigham, Brett Cullen, Douglas Hodge and Josh Pais also star in the film co-written by Phillips and Scott Silver.

Joker is expected for release in cinemas from 4 October.