ABC(LOS ANGELES) — Alec Baldwin has been tapped to star opposite Joaquin Phoenix in the upcoming Joker origin film, according to Variety. He’ll reportedly play the part of Thomas Wayne, the father of Batman — a.k.a. Bruce Wayne.
The Thomas Wayne character was first introduced in 1939 as part of Detective Comics’ Batman origins story. The physician and philanthropist and his wife Martha were murdered in a Gotham City street robbery, which served as the inspiration for Bruce Wayne to fight crime as the Caped Crusader.
The character was most recently portrayed by The Walking Dead‘s Jeffrey Dean Morgan in 2016’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and before that was played by Law & Order vet Linus Roach in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight series.
Joker, also starring Zazie Beetz and Marc Maron, is slated for a 2019 release.
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