Bill Skarsgård is one of the candidates to join James Gunn’s DCU. Shortly before it was revealed that David Corenswet and Rachel Borsnahan will play Clark Kent and Lois Lane in Superman: Legacy, a report revealed that both Bill and his brother Alexander Skarsgård were on the shortlist of candidates to join the project as Lex Luthor.
The youngest of the family of actors has already demonstrated his acting skills in the superhero genre in Deadpool 2, where he played Zeitgeist, one of the members of the X-Force commanded by Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson. Additionally, he has also starred as a villain both in the most recent adaptation of Stephen King’s classic IT, playing the evil clown Pennywise, and in the successful fourth installment of the John Wick saga.
But even if he doesn’t land the role of Luthor in Superman: Legacy, there’s no doubt that he would be a very good candidate to play some other foe of DC’s heroes, like the Joker, for example. The artist Youssef Defenshi published on his Instagram account an image of Skarsgård turned into Batman’s nemesis that proves he’d be a good choice for the role:
The Joker Will Be an Important Piece in the DCU’s future
Even if the character doesn’t appear in The Brave and the Bold, the film that will introduce a post-Ben Affleck version of the Dark Knight into the main canon of the franchise there’s still plenty of room for the notorious villain to shine and wreak havoc on the streets of Gotham City in some other projects.
On the one hand, Joaquin Phoenix will once again become Arthur Fleck in the long-awaited sequel to the Todd Phillips film, exploring in depth the Joker’s passage through Arkham Asylum, a central place in the mythology of the Caped Crusader. But the focus of the sequel will not only be on Arthur, but also on Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn.
Joker: Folie a Deux will tell the toxic and twisted love story between Arthur and Harley in the form of a musical, a detail that has surprised fans and will undoubtedly make the film stand out, for better or worse.
But Joker 2 might not be the character’s only chance to return. In The Batman finale, Matt Reeves dropped hints about the appearance of Barry Keoghan’s version of the Joker, and even has an interaction with Robert Pattinson’s Batman in a deleted scene. And while his presence in the sequel hasn’t been confirmed, he’s sure to show up at some point if Reeves’ Bruce Wayne universe continues to grow.
With Joaquin Phoenix playing an acclaimed version of the villain and the possibility of Keoghan playing the Joker in The Batman Part 2 or any upcoming project from that franchise, maybe the presence of the character in James Gunn’s DCU it’s not necessary, but if he ever shows up, Bill Skarsgård would be a fine choice to play him.