Todd Phillips has shared the first image of Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker.
The 47-year-old director – who is set to write and direct the eagerly anticipated movie – has taken to Instagram to reveal an image of Joaquin in the guise of his on-screen character in ‘Joker’.
In the shot – which is simply captioned "Arthur", presumably in reference to his name before he was given the mononym – Joaquin is seen with a serious expression on his face and long, floppy hair.
Joaquin previously teased his portrayal of the Joker, revealing he would try to bring something "unique" to the role.
The Hollywood star also insisted the film wouldn’t fit into any one specific movie genre.
Looking ahead to the new movie, he shared: "I wouldn’t quite classify this as like any genre. I wouldn’t say it’s a superhero movie, or a studio movie or a … It feels unique, and I think more then anything, and probably the most important thing, is Todd seems very passionate about it and very giving, and so that’s exciting.
"I think, underneath the excitement of these films, and the size of them, there are these incredible characters that are dealing with real life struggles. And sometimes that is uncovered and exposed, and sometimes it isn’t, and so I always felt, like, there were characters in comics that were really interesting and deserve the opportunity to be kind of studied.
"And so I think that’s what Todd sees appealing about this idea."
‘Joker’ is scheduled for release in October 2019.
Todd Phillips releases first image of Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker
