Joker: final trailer with Joaquin Phoenix as supervillain released

Joaquin Phoenix goes from sign-waving clown to crazed villain in the creepy final trailer for Joker.

The origins story of the Batman supervillain, directed by Todd Phillips, stars Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, a man struggling to find his way in Gotham's fractured society.

The Warner Bros trailer shows him as a clown-for-hire by day, who aspires to be a stand-up comic at night. However, he is beaten down by his treatment at the hands of others.

“Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes one bad decision that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events in this gritty character study,” Warner Bros said.

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One scene shows Arthur – who officially makes his name The Joker in the new trailer – in what appears to be a therapy session.

He tells the counsellor: “You just ask the same questions every week. How’s your job? Are you having negative thoughts? All I have are negative thoughts.”

The trailer also gives us a first look at Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen), Batman’s dad, as well as more of Robert De Niro’s talk show host.

Joker, which also stars Zazie Beetz and Frances Conroy, premieres at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday. It will be in cinemas on October 4th.