Dynamic Duo: Could Leonardo DiCaprio Play the Joker in Martin Scorsese's New Origin Film?

A total of five amazing films have been churned out with Martin Scorsese in the directors chair and Leonardo DiCaprio in the main role:

• Gangs of New York
• The Aviator
• The Departed
• Shutter Island
• The Wolf of Wall Street

If you haven't noticed, these two love to work together, and there is a lot of magic is happening on the movie screen when they do. With the latest news of Scorsese's involvement with the upcoming DC project currently titled The Joker which is set to be an origin film for the character, I wonder how likely it is that DiCaprio signs on to join?

While Scorsese will not be directing, his personal touch is expected to be heavily influenced on the movie and you would hope his pull in Hollywood could end up playing a role in casting and his buddy DiCaprio who is grossly overdue for a superhero role.

DiCaprio has been hesitant to join major film franchises but with one of his longstanding partners in film behind the movie and the opportunity to make his mark on one of the most iconic characters in film, his perception of superhero franchises could change.

These two have earned a total of $1.3 billion together and have each called the other inspirations for their work. DiCaprio looks up to Scorsese and believes he has taught him a great deal about the art of film. If anyone can convince DiCaprio to do a superhero - or in this case supervillain - film it would be Scorsese. We can assume that since Scorsese signed on to help with the film that it is sure to be a step above the stereotypical action packed film that superhero films are synonymous with.

Why Should Leonardo DiCaprio Play The Joker?

If anyone wants to argue that DiCaprio is not one of the top actors of our generation, well then sorry you've never watch a movie in the last twenty-five years. His range is limitless with an unstoppable list of diverse characters that he can play at any moment. The good guy, bad guy, anti-hero, or even just a character who gets attacked by a bear and hardly talks the entire film, he can do it all. To think he couldn't pull off the Joker isn't even a question, but what kind of Joker would we get?

With this being an origin film, we can expect most of the film to feature the human side that came before the Clown Prince of Crime was born. DiCaprio could play the nervous comedian who just wanted to provide for his family that was featured in The Killing Joke or the murderous mob boss that was played in Tim Burton's Batman.

The beauty of this situation is that this version of The Joker is expected to be one unlike any we've seen before and with the unique direction of Scorsese, Scott Silver, and the direction of Todd Phillips. This will be a new take on the character and I'm sure DiCaprio would be able to pull it off and probably make the performance Oscar worthy.

What about actually playing the Joker? Could he play a psychopathic murderer? I look at two movies to give us that answer, with two characters who are as close as we're gonna get to the Joker in any of DiCaprio's past performance - Calvin Candie from Django Unchained and Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street.

With Candie you have a sociopathic racist that takes pleasure in the mistreatment of human beings and DiCaprio was able to show off his darker side and go off on a racist tangent that included plenty of crazy eyes and a creepy demeanor. While the character of Jordan Belfort is a real person, DiCaprio gave the character an over the top flare and charisma that worked. He delivered loud and aggressive speeches and had plenty of crazy moments through out the film.

Both these films show off that he can play crazy and evil and I'm sure it would be no problem for him to dial it up an extra hundred notches to be able to portray The Joker. This is a take on the character that DC fans desperately want and deserve, something that could possibly come close to the inspired portrayal of the character we got from the late Heath Ledger.