The Finest Jokers Ranked — Heath Ledger, Jared Leto, Barry Keoghan, and Extra

He is the Clown Prince of Crime, and a dangerously insane legal mastermind who regularly brings Gotham Metropolis to its knees. The Joker isn’t just the most harmful villain in Batman‘s notorious Rogues’ Gallery — he is a drive of nature who merely can’t be underestimated or contained. Through the years, the Joker has emerged as probably the best comedian e-book villain ever created. When used accurately, he turns into the darkish yin to Batman’s yang, a Mephistopheles who exposes their relationship to be as poisonous as it’s symbiotic.

We have seen varied variations of the Joker on the large and small screens, each live-action and animated. Proper now, Barry Keoghan from The Batman holds the mantle, however you recognize it is solely a matter of time earlier than a brand new actor will barrel down on us with a brand new method to the murderous man who laughs, with Joaquin Phoenix‘s second tour of the grimacing villain arriving in October 2024 with Joker: Folie À Deux. Within the meantime, take pleasure in this listing of the eight finest variations of the Joker so far.

8 Cesar Romero

The unique Batman collection (1966-1968)

A matinée idol and quintessential “Latin lover” character actor with many years of movie and tv credit to his title, Cesar Romero is probably not everybody’s favourite Joker, however he was the first to play the function on display. A main recurring villain within the unique Batman collection from 1966 to 1969, Romero famously refused to shave his mustache for the function, and it will probably nonetheless be seen, slathered with white make-up.

Future Jokers would carry new layers to the function, however in the event you watch fastidiously, you may see the seeds of Romero’s Joker in lots of the later performances. From his brightly coloured fits to mad, shrieking laughter, Romero’s Joker could have hewed near the up to date comics’ camp-tastic tone, however nonetheless deserves a spot within the Joker pantheon.

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7 Cameron Monaghan

Gotham (2015-2019)

Gotham started as a reasonably gritty procedural collection following incorruptible cop Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) and his grizzled accomplice Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) as they navigate the more and more insane streets of a pre-Batman Gotham Metropolis. The present mutated into one thing very totally different over time, going gleefully off the rails.

Presenting its personal origin tales for traditional Batman characters like Catwoman, The Riddler, Poison Ivy, the Penguin, and Bane, Gotham additionally launched a number of potential Jokers, culminating in Cameron Monaghan’s (Shameless) dedicated performances as deranged twin brothers Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska. Whereas the present couldn’t embrace any overt Joker characters resulting from company mandates, showrunner Bruno Heller managed to incorporate a number of intelligent Joker references and character touches, from the well-known scarred smile to a personality falling in a vat of acid. The present’s notion that the Joker is one thing akin to a viral psychological angle works, in no small half resulting from Monaghan’s unhinged efficiency(s).

6 Jared Leto

Suicide Squad (2016) and Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)

There are many followers who doubtless need to overlook about Jared Leto’s efficiency in David Ayer’s much-maligned 2016 Suicide Squad altogether. Heath Ledger’s good efficiency because the Joker in The Darkish Knight was eight years outdated by then, but remained burned into the minds of nearly everybody. Leto’s Joker veered so removed from Ledger’s tackle the character that it left some audiences seething.

Nonetheless, regardless of Ayers’ heavy-handed and tonally inconsistent method to the Bat-verse established by Zack Snyder in Batman V Superman: Daybreak of Justice, there’s truly a lot to admire about Leto’s Mister J. This Joker is much less of an anarchic demon than a pure, psychopathic mass assassin. This interpretation appears to attract inspiration from Frank Miller’s notorious All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Marvel comics, which ran from 2005 to 2008. That Joker is muscular, closely tattooed, and extra of a ruthless, serial-killing crime boss than the supervillain mastermind we’ve come to anticipate. Leto’s transient cameo because the Joker on the very finish of Snyder’s prolonged Justice League director’s reduce marked a compelling, too-brief return to that character, making an argument for persevering with that model of the Batman universe in some kind.

5 Barry Keoghan

The Batman (2022)

Proper now, Keoghan’s model of the Clown Prince is extra promise than it’s product. We have seen little extra of the Irish actor’s flip within the function than a short scene shared between him and Paul Dano‘s Riddler within the closing moments of Matt Reeves‘ swirling, epic tackle the Darkish Knight. Nonetheless, in these fast moments (and a deleted scene), Keoghan nonetheless presents one thing slightly tantalizing — a Joker that’s sensible, snide, psychologically manipulative, and maybe a bit much less titanically unhinged than different iterations. He appears nearly calm in comparison with the figures on this listing, a cool buyer who might get beneath Batman’s pores and skin and pose a risk to Gotham in new methods. Whereas it is not clear if Keoghan is returning for Reeves’ 2026 sequel, the promise of a comparatively sane Joker who can push all of Bruce Wanye’s varied buttons with a transparent head and a deeply scarred smile is fascinating.

4 Joaquin Phoenix

Joker (2019)

Director Todd Phillips‘ Joker movie proved to be divisive and shocking, delivering an Elseworlds-style alternate-universe tackle the character. Like Gotham, Joker exists in a pre-Batman Gotham Metropolis. Just like the Joker of Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke, Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix‘s Arthur Fleck is a failed comic who turns into a legal. That is the place Joker leaves the comedian e-book supply materials behind, changing into a darkish psychological thriller within the mildew of its two important inspirations, Martin Scorsese‘s Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy.

There are any variety of adjectives one might conjure to explain Joker: disturbing, grotesque, troublesome, surprising. Todd Phillips directs in a tone just like Christopher Nolan‘s Bat-films however in a distinct, darker key. The remixing Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver carry to their origin story is consistent with Gotham‘s method to the character: the Joker stands for absolute chaos, which might unfold like a virus beneath the fitting (or improper) circumstances. Phoenix will reprise his function later this 12 months within the movie’s sequel, Joker: Folie À Deux.

3 Jack Nicholson

Batman (1989)

If there was no Christopher Nolan or The Darkish Knight, Jack Nicholson’s efficiency because the Joker in director Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman might prime this listing. As the primary live-action Joker since Cesar Romero cackled his manner via the ’60s Batman collection, Nicholson gave us the charismatic gangster model of the enduring villain.

This smug and sneering Joker’s origin story — dropped right into a vat of chemical compounds by Batman — is a direct nod to the 1951 origin of the character, as written by the good Invoice Finger in Detective Comics #168. Batman ’89 boldly hyperlinks Nicholson’s Jack Napier to Batman/Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) by making younger Jack the killer of younger Bruce’s mother and father. This acknowledgment of the twin, symbiotic nature of Batman and the Joker continues to outline the characters. Equally, Nicholson’s Joker design — from his grotesque, carved-in smile to eye-watering purple and orange outfits — has influenced each incarnation that adopted.

2 Mark Hamill

Batman: The Animated Collection (1992-1995), The Arkham online game collection (2009-2015), The Killing Joke (2016)

The animated DC universe is an entire different realm, and the Joker has been performed by many, many voice actors over time. Notable amongst them are Zack Galifinakis’ obsessive, family-friendly Joker in The Lego Batman Film, Alan Tudyk’s spot-on narcissist in HBO Max’s hilarious Harley Quinn collection, and Troy Baker’s flip within the prequel sport Batman: Arkham Origins. Nonetheless, let’s face it: there’s however one biggest animated Joker, and it’s Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill.

The traditional Batman: The Animated Collection gave us a Joker straight out of the Silver Age: some goofy plans, ove- the-top shtick, and is an absolute blast each time he reveals up. Hamill’s maniacal laughter and snarling supply are sometimes as humorous as they’re terrifying, traits he performs up within the animated adaptation of Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s well-known one-off, The Killing Joke. Hamill carried his efficiency over to the online game universe, beginning with Batman: Arkham Asylum, which gave us probably the most compelling Bat-stories of any medium. Hamill’s Joker will all the time be one for the ages.

1 Heath Ledger

The Darkish Knight (2008)

Coming off of the debacle of 1997’s Batman & Robin, few anticipated what Christopher Nolan pulled off with 2005’s Batman Begins: a grounded Batman film that wasn’t life like, however looks like it’s. This rationale extends into Nolan’s 2008 follow-up The Darkish Knight, a near-perfect superhero film that comes as shut as something to transcending its style. That is due in very giant half to Heath Ledger’s surprising and terrifying portrayal of the Joker, for which he earned a posthumous Oscar for Finest Supporting Actor.

From the relentless opening financial institution heist, which finds the Joker secretly managing every thing to his personal mad whims, to the unimaginable decisions he forces on the residents of Gotham Metropolis, Ledger’s Joker is the unstoppable drive to his counterpart’s immovable object. The spotlight is Batman and the Joker’s interrogation scene, which Joker makes use of to reveal the vulnerabilities Batman/Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) thought nobody might see. Reminiscent of The Killing Joke, this Joker presents quite a few doable origins, maintaining his backstory as “a number of alternative.” With no title or historical past, this Joker turns into a definitive and absolute model, casting a shadow that subsequent actors may have a really robust time banishing.