If you come to pop culture prominence by playing a blood-thirsty homicidal clown, the Joker comparisons are bound to emerge at some point. For actor David Howard Thornton, the man who has played Art the Clown in Damien Leone’s “Terrifier” saga since 2016, that’s apparently a welcome development.
Thornton, who landed the role of Art due to some nasty improv during his audition, has seemingly relished every second of portraying the invincible harlequin, turning Art into a burgeoning horror icon following the surprise success of 2022’s “Terrifier 2”. With 2024’s “Terrifier 3” proving to be an even wilder splatter-fest than its predecessor, Art’s pop culture standing only increased, and talk of Thornton branching out into other roles has abounded.
When you’re as good at portraying a killer clown with a twisted sense of humor as Thornton, the idea of playing the Joker was always going to be part of that discourse. Indeed, prior to “Terrifier 3” debuting, the actor openly admitted to wanting to play the Joker in James Gunn’s new DC Universe. At the time, the idea seemed intriguing at the very least. After all, every live-action Clown Prince of Crime has been menacing in his own way, but we’ve yet to see a truly disturbing take on the character in a mainstream DC movie.
Now, thanks to a fan film, we can finally get a glimpse of what Thornton might do with the character were he given the freedom to go dark.
David Howard Thornton’s dark Joker
When David Howard Thornton spoke about wanting to play the Joker in the new DC Universe, it was actually just the latest development in a long history that linked him and the infamous Batman rogue. Aside from his YouTube channel being full of old videos of a pre-“Terrifier” Thornton delivering Joker monologues, the actor actually played the character in a “Nightwing” fan series on YouTube titled “Nightwing: Escalation.” From creators Alex Valderana, Zack Abramowitz, and Jon Caballero, the series saw Thornton play the villain in six of the 19 episodes, delivering an animated take on the character that took some obvious cues from Mark Hamill’s signature vocal performance from “Batman: The Animated Series.”
Now, following “Terrifier 3” absolutely slaughtering “Joker 2” at the box office last year, we have a true melding of Thornton’s darker sensibility with the character via a brutal fan film that allows Thornton to once again channel the sadistic spirit of Art. Take a look:
Written and directed by Aaron W. Bennett, “Joker’s Wild” takes a plot point from the infamous 1988 Batman comic story “A Death in the Family,” in which Jason Todd’s Robin dies after being tortured and blown up by the Joker. The plot point in question here is the torture, which Bennett has turned into what is essentially a horror short that casts Thornton’s villain as a truly murderous criminal who delights in tormenting Jason Todd in increasingly gruesome ways. There’s even a little nod to Tim Burton’s “Batman” from 1989 hidden in the dialogue.
Will David Howard Thornton ever officially play the Joker?
Previous iterations of David Howard Thornton’s Joker haven’t been quite as graphic as “Joker’s Wild,” with the actor seizing this opportunity to demonstrate what he might do if given the chance to meld his Art the Clown persona with the Clown Prince of Crime. And if the comments on “Joker’s Wild” are anything to go by, there are plenty of fans who are ready for Thornton’s depraved take on the character to be made official. Indeed, the whole project appears to have been made with this in mind, with Aaron W. Bennett pinning his comment tagging James Gunn and proclaiming, “David is your man!”
At this stage, of course, the fledgling DC Universe is by no means a sure thing. The recent “Superman” trailer wasn’t just selling a movie; it was selling a whole universe, but only the film’s official release in July 2025 will confirm whether fans are buying or not. All of which is to say that casting the “Terrifier” guy as Joker is likely not Gunn’s priority at this moment. Heck, we’re not even sure what’s going to happen to Matt Reeves’ existing “Batman Epic Crime Saga” universe, with rumors of this previously self-contained timeline being folded into Gunn’s cinematic universe at some point in the future. If that were to happen, Reeves already has his Joker in the form of “Saltburn” star Barry Keoghan.
Where does Thornton fit into this? Well, at this point, he doesn’t. But it is certainly interesting to see his take on the character given a more cinematic treatment, as is seeing the actor continue his humble campaign to gain Warner and DC’s attention. Thornton, who will soon play a killer Mickey Mouse in the upcoming Steamboat Willie-inspired horror movie “Screamboat,” clearly has a deep love for the character, and said as much to GamesRadar+ in 2024, referring to the Joker as his “favorite villain of all time.” While we’re not sure if his mission will be successful, at the very least it keeps the concept of a truly dark Joker in the discourse — a characterization that is yet to be embraced by any live-action Batman director. If, then, this all leads to us getting a fully realized version of that incredible, terrifying concept art for “The Dark Knight” that never came to fruition, then we’re all for it.