Director Todd Phillips has confirmed the upcoming Joker film will indeed be rated R, so a 15 in the UK.
Phillips has been sharing updates from the movie’s production on his Instagram page, including first looks and behind the scenes shots.
Yesterday (June 16) The Hangover director posted a black-and-white image of star Joaquin Phoenix transforming into the infamous Batman villain, painting his face white.
Captioning the photo with ‘finishing touches’, it appears Phillips’ work on the upcoming comicbook adaptation is nearly complete.
Fans filled the comments with heart emojis, with many also asking the director questions including ‘will a new trailer arrive soon?’
Although we don’t know the answer to this, Phillips did respond to Gabriel Scott who simply wrote ‘MPAA rating???’
Warner Bros. Pictures
The filmmaker confirmed:
It will be Rated R. I’ve been asked this a lot. Just assumed people knew. Sorry.
Although, as Phillips suggests, we did assume Joker will be rated R, it is nice to have the confirmation.
Check out the trailer for Joker here:
The first in a series of DC-based movies which are separate to the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), set in 1981 Joker follows Phoenix’s failed stand-up comedian Arthur Fleck as he is driven to insanity and a life of crime.
Robert De Niro stars as a talk show host who plays a role in Arthur’s downfall, while Deadpool 2‘s Zazie Beetz plays a young single mother who becomes the comedian’s love interest.
Bill Camp, Marc Maron and Frances Conroy will also star.
Warner Bros. Pictures
Most comicbook movies avoid getting an R-rating as the wider the potential audience, the more likely the film will be a box office smash.
However, recently Logan, Kick-Ass and Deadpool all proved to be both critical and commercial hits, proving that R-rated comicbook films can do well.
It will be interesting to see how well Joker performs, but due to the popularity of the character we think it will head straight to the top of those box office charts.
Joker will be released in the UK on October 4.
