6 actors who could replace Jared Leto as The Joker in the DC Universe

If The Joker ends up being a major part of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DC Universe, who could end up playing the Clown Prince of Crime?

The Joker is one of the all-time greatest comic book supervillains. Heck, he might just be the all-time greatest comic book supervillain. He’s been tormenting Gotham City for decades and has been a constant thorn in the side of Batman and the Bat-Family.

He’s also had a huge presence on the silver screen. The Clown Prince of Crime made his movie debut when Cesar Romero played him in 1966’s Batman: The Movie, reprising his role from the TV series. Jack Nicholson portrayed a more sinister version in 1989’s Batman while Heath Ledger modernized the anarchist in his Academy Award-winning performance in 2008’s The Dark Knight.

We now have three current versions of The Joker, if you will. Joaquin Phoenix played the title character in the Elseworlds tale Joker, Barry Keoghan made a cameo as the Clown Prince of Crime in The Batman, while Jared Leto played a unique version of the comic book villain in DC Extended Universe movies Suicide Squad and Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Phoenix will reprise his role in upcoming sequel Joker: Folie à Deux and Keoghan will likely return in The Batman: Part II, but it’s likely that we’ve seen the last of Leto’s version.

The DCEU is being reset with The Flash movie so that it can be relaunched as the DC Universe. Under the guidance of DC Studios co-chairmen and CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran, we’ll likely have a whole new line up of stars appearing as some of DC’s most iconic heroes and villains.

With that in mind, who could take over the role of The Joker from Jared Leto?