Joker Trailer Gives Us A Chilling First Look At Joaquin Phoenix's Clown Prince Of Crime

Forget what you might have heard: Todd Phillips' Joker isn't what you're expecting. "It's a tragedy," the director told attendees at this year's CinemaCon on Tuesday (April 2) before debuting the very first teaser trailer for the DC Films flick.


Starring Joaquin Phoenix as failed stand up comedian Arthur Fleck — before he becomes Gotham's resident Clown Prince of Crime — Joker is an origin story about one of the most iconic villains in comic book history. The teaser opens with Arthur in therapy. "My mother habitually tells me to smile and put on a happy face," he says in a voiceover, over a scene of Arthur helping bathe his mother (Frances Conroy). "She notified me I had a purpose, to bring laughter and joy to the world." (This is the only scene in which we visualize Arthur with a proper smile on his face.)


obviously, it's not that easy to smile whenever you feel like everything — and each person — around you keeps dragging you down. Because the teaser progresses, we visualize Arthur's slow descent into madness, from suffering violent attacks at the hands of strangers on the street to committing them himself — all set to the melancholic tune of Nat King Cole's "Smile."


The tagline for the film is "put on a happy face." It's clear that Phillips and Phoenix's interpretation of the Joker is a far more grounded take, as images of Arkham State Hospital and depictions of mental illness are shown at various points in the trailer. "The worst segment of having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as in case you don't," Arthur scribbles in his joke book.


The teaser ends with a final chilling look at Arthur as he's totally transformed into the Joker, his hair dyed green and his face painted white — the smile on his face is currently something quite sinister. "I used to think my life was a tragedy," he says. Yet right now I realize, it's a comedy."


Joker also stars Robert De Niro, Deadpool 2 breakout Zazie Beetz, and Marc Maron. It's scheduled to hit theaters on October 4.