David Howard Thornton may be best known for starring as Art the Clown in the "Terrifer" films, but there's one character he's always wanted to play that's even more sadistic. Now, he finally has his chance.
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00:00David Howard Thornton may be best known for starring as Art the Clown in the Terrifier
00:05films, but there's one character he's always wanted to play that's even more sadistic.
00:09Now, he finally has his chance. David Howard Thornton stars as the Joker in
00:13a new fan film called Joker's Wild. Written and directed by Aaron W. Bennett, Joker's Wild
00:18takes a plot point from the infamous 1988 Batman comic story A Death in the Family,
00:23in which Jason Todd's Robin dies after being tortured and blown up by the Joker.
00:27The focus here is the torture, which Bennett has essentially turned into a horror short that
00:32casts Thornton's villain as a murderous criminal who delights in tormenting Todd.
00:36Ooh, now this could be fun for later.
00:42Thornton's part in Joker's Wild is actually the latest development in a long history that linked
00:47him and the infamous criminal. Aside from his YouTube channel being full of old videos of him
00:51delivering Joker monologues, the actor actually played the character in a Nightwing fan series
00:55on YouTube titled Nightwing Escalation.
00:59Maybe I should put you out of your misery.
01:05Thornton played the villain in six of the 19 episodes in the series, delivering an energetic
01:10take on the character that took some obvious cues from Mark Hamill's vocal performance from
01:14Batman the Animated Series. Listen, boopsy, even though you never call and never write,
01:21I still got a soft spot for you.
01:23Prior to Terrifier 3 debuting, Thornton openly admitted to wanting to play the Joker in James
01:28Gunn's new DC Universe. Thus, when he took the part in Joker's Wild, he was able to demonstrate
01:33what he might do if given the chance to meld his art-the-clown persona with the clown prince of
01:37crime. That said, if the comments on Joker's Wild are anything to go by, there are plenty
01:42of fans who are ready for Thornton's depraved take on the character. Indeed, the whole project
01:46appears to have been made with this in mind, with Bennett tagging James Gunn in his pinned comment
01:51and proclaiming,
01:52"...David is your man."
01:53At this stage, of course, the fledgling DC Universe is by no means a sure thing. The
01:57recent Superman trailer wasn't just selling a movie, it was selling a whole universe. But
02:02only the film's official release in July 2025 will confirm whether fans are buying or not,
02:06all of which is to say that casting the Terrifier guy as Joker is likely not Gunn's priority at
02:11this moment. Heck, it's not even certain what's going to happen to Matt Reeves' existing Batman
02:15epic crime saga universe, with rumors of this previously self-contained timeline being folded
02:20into Gunn's cinematic universe at some point in the future. If that were to happen,
02:24Reeves already has his Joker in the form of Saltburn star Barry Keoghan.
02:28So where does Thornton fit into this? Well, at this point, he doesn't. But it is certainly
02:33interesting to see his take on the character given a more cinematic treatment. Thornton
02:37clearly has a deep love for the character, and said as much to GamesRadarPlus in 2024,
02:42referring to the Joker as his favorite villain of all time. While it's still unknown if his
02:46mission will be successful, at the very least, it keeps the concept of a truly dark Joker in
02:50the discourse.