Robert De Niro Weighs in on Possibility His 'Joker' Character is Connected to 'The King of Comedy'

Yesterday we got to see the first real glimpses of the new Joker movie starring Joaquin Phoenix, and fans of the infamous villain have been going crazy analyzing it. So far what they've come up with is that this will be unlike any other DC movie yet, and that there could be connections to another film which is not in the comic book world at all.

Fans have connected the dots that Robert De Niro's character in Joker, talk show host Murray Franklin, and his character Rupert Pupkin in Martin Scorsese's classic 1982 film The King of Comedy, could be the same person. And we're not the only ones to see this theory as valid, as De Niro himself agrees it could be.

"There’s a connection, obviously, with the whole thing," De Niro told IndieWire. "But it’s not as a direct connection as the character I’m playing being Rupert many years later as a host."

If Pupkin had gotten to the fame he always wanted, he would likely become someone like Franklin. But these connections will probably be lost on people who have never seen Scorsese's movie, anyway.

Yet, De Niro would've still been down to reprise the character more concretely. "If they would’ve proposed that to me, I would’ve said, ‘That’s interesting, maybe we’ll try to do that.’ But by making this type of film, it is connected in a way, as you’ll see," he teased.

We'll get to see what De Niro is talking about when Joker hits theaters Oct. 4, 2019.