Every Live-Action Joker Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best

The Joker is one of the greatest villains ever created and a compelling character. So, with the release of Joker: Folie à Deux having come and gone, let’s rank all the movies with the Clown Prince of Crime in them based on how well they handle him.

8. Jared Leto – Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)

The “Release the Snyder Cut” crowd got more than they bargained for when Zack Snyder decided to vomit out every idea he could possibly have into his film (and yet it was still better than the original cut), including a post-apocalyptic verbal showdown between Batman and Jared Leto’s take on Joker. Except it wasn’t even Leto’s take; it was just Leto saying painful Snyder dialogue as the director/screenwriter tried to cram all the ideas that others had brought to the character before this into one five-minute scene, even cribbing “we live in a society” from the mocking of Joker in one deleted scene (yes, a movie made of deleted scenes had deleted scenes). The outcome is the worst film performance by a long shot and another resounding nail in the coffin of the Snyderverse.

7. Barry Keoghan – The Batman (2022)

If you blinked at the end of The Batman or didn’t watch Barry Keoghan’s fantastic deleted scene, you wouldn’t even know the actor portrayed Joker. But Keoghan’s brief turn is probably the most disturbing rendition we’ve seen of the evil clown, even if we never really got to see his face. In fact, if the aforementioned deleted scene had actually been in The Batman, then he’d easily skyrocket above Leto’s turn in Suicide Squad and probably Phoenix in Joker: Folie à Deux. As it stands, however, Keoghan has only actually played Joker for a brief moment in a turn that may or may not carry on into The Batman‘s sequel. As such, it’s hard to rank this moment higher than a fully fleshed-out performance from Leto, no matter how bad that performance might be.

6. Jared Leto – Suicide Squad (2016)

There are many, many things wrong with Suicide Squad, but Jared Leto’s turn as the Joker might be the most wrong of them all. Portraying the character as a kind of sleazy crime lord with a violent streak, Leto’s performance is both off-putting and off the mark. Yes, some of this might be from a woefully bad screenplay, but most of it is just Leto trying too hard and yet getting everything so incredibly wrong. There’s nothing wrong with interpreting a character in a different way (see both Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix), but Leto’s Joker proves there is definitely a wrong way to do it. Whatever Leto is doing in this movie (and on the set of the movie behind the scenes) isn’t the Joker, and it isn’t good either.

5. Joaquin Phoenix – Joker: Folie à Deux

It should tell you how bad Jared Leto’s turn as Joker is that it’s sitting below Phoenix’s portrayal of Joker in Joker: Folie à Deux. That’s not because Phoenix is terrible in this film; he’s actually quite brilliant. It’s because the movie, even more so than its predecessor, is actually an Arthur Fleck film or maybe just a film lightly inspired by the character of Joker. A metaphorical character study wrapped in a comic-book movie, this musical (yes, really) may be a brilliant piece of art or a trainwreck of arthouse wannabe directing. What it definitely isn’t is a film about The Joker, and as such, it can’t be said to be anything but a poor contender on this list.

4. Joaquin Phoenix – Joker (2019)

Is Joaquin Phoenix’s performance in Joker a tour de force of acting skill? Without a doubt. In fact, if we were just rating acting of any role, his turn as Joker would be in contention for number one on this list. But we’re ranking by Joker portrayal, and unfortunately, Arthur Fleck is a pretty poor Joker. Detached from most comic canon, the film’s misguided attempt at turning Joker into a mentally unwell anti-hero is nearly cringe-worthy by the end of the film, as hordes of protesters celebrate his madness. Applaud the risk of taking an entirely different slant on the character but also recognize that this movie is neither smart enough nor insightful enough to pull off its complex take. Instead, we get a film that, under its gloss of art-house prestige, features a Joker of little quality and a message of even less.

3. Cesar Romero – Batman (1966)

Cesar Romero refused to shave his mustache to play Joker, forcing the production team to paint it white like the rest of his face. It should have been the kind of thing that gets you fired. Instead, it was just another perfect part of the campy wonder that was Adam West’s Batman, a campiness that was only ramped up even more for the TV show’s film, which features rubber sharks, a comic-style bomb with a fuse, and more dutch angles than all of cinema before it. It also features Romero chewing up the scenery in the only Joker that’s truly fun. His performance, along with the other stars-of-yesteryear villains of the series, is the only time that Batman’s collection of rogues is simply fun to watch. Obviously, a lot of that comes from the target audience of the show, but there’s something wickedly enjoyable about Romero’s giggling prankster that delivers in spades.

2. Jack Nicholson – Batman (1989)

Jack Nicholson’s Joker might be the perfect balance of every version of the character out there. Still firmly based in his purple-suited, gag-weapon roots but also darkly insane to the point of scarring his girlfriend’s face (Harley Quinn hadn’t even been invented yet), Nicholson finds a nearly impossible balance of comic-book buffoonery and bone-chilling insanity. It is the latter part of the performance that is often forgotten when discussing him in relation to other Jokers, but Nicholson’s Joker is just as dark and demented as they are, if not more so — he just did it in a purple suit and big hat while delivering killer lines like, “Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?” It should also be noted that, while not part of his performance, any child of the ’90s has his creepy death smile and recorded laugh seared into their nightmares for all eternity.

1. Heath Ledger – The Dark Night (2008)

When Heath Ledger was cast as the Joker in The Dark Knight, fandom went insane with disbelief. When the world saw his performance as the character, that quickly stopped. Ledger’s turn as the Joker wasn’t just a seminal Joker performance; it was a seminal performance in film. Completely redefining the character for all future interpretations in any medium while also ensuring it was still the Joker, Ledger’s performance turns a Batman movie into a Joker film, exploring the character as not just a foil to Batman but as an agent of chaos set to crumble society for no apparent reason. One could argue that there are purer Joker performances on this list but none are better and any that came after it take some inspiration from it.

And that is every live-action Joker movie performance ranked from worst to best.

The above article was updated on 10/9/2024 by the original author to include Joker: Folie à Deux.