In the wake of whatever the hell Jared Leto was doing as the Joker in the frankly awful Suicide Squad, there came rumblings of a handful of new iterations of the iconic Batman villain. When rumors swirled that Martin Scorsese was interested in producing a clown prince origin story, curiosities peaked. When the always reliable Joaquin Phoenix was tapped to fill the shoes, anticipation only rose. The long-awaited first look at Todd Phillips’ Joker has finally surfaced online and it promises a dark and thoughtful look at the origins of madness in maybe the world’s most iconic villain.

Joaquin plays Arthur Fleck, a failed comedian who turns to crime after humiliation and years of being a social outcast. Joined by a cast that includes Zazie Beetz, Robert De Niro, Frances Conroy, and Marc Maron, Joker looks to really scale down the superheroics to tell a grounded tale of a real-life madness. The footage offered here is nothing short of extremely promising, reassuring those worried that the DCEU’s scattershot tone might end up making this a misfire. If anything, this only drives up anticipation for its October 4, 2019 release.

[READ MORE: Our review of the largely enjoyable DCEU movie ‘Shazam!’]

Check out the trailer for Joker below:

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