One Of DC's Best Joker Actors First Appeared In Superboy 30 Years Before

Published Jul 30, 2026, 9:30 AM EDT Zoë Miskelly is an editor and second in command for Screen Rant's Movies team, having covered the entertainment industry for almost 10 years now. Zoë's love of superheroes and all things Marvel & DC started out in childhood, and has blossomed into a career getting to talk about some of the biggest and best movies and shows of all time, having previously focused on comics while working at WhatCulture. One of the best and most popular Joker actors in the character's on-screen history actually appeared in Superboy long before they took on the DC villain role three decades later. With the Joker being such a sought-after role for actors for the majority of the character's movie and show history, it's made a lot of sense that the Clown Prince of Crime has had such a stellar filmography, with a range of solid talents having taken on the role one after another for years. That said, each actor who's played the Joker and excelled has done so in their own distinctive way. For example, Heath Ledger's gritty and more psychological take on the clown is notably different to Mark Hamill's more cartoonish cackling chaos causer, even if both are deservedly celebrated versions of the character in their own right. Interestingly, one of the most lauded iterations of the Joker on-screen was played by an actor who had appeared in DC's live-action releases many years before this, which may have helped add a further layer of nuance to their performance later down the line - and, either way, is a fascinating detail about one of the most popular renditions of the Joker in recent history. Joaquin Phoenix Was In 1989's Superboy Three Decades Before He Became The Joker Image via MovieStillsDB While Joaquin Phoenix's role as the Joker in 2019's Joker and then 2024's Joker: Folie à Deux is how the actor has become most associated with DC for fans now, Phoenix had already appeared in DC's on-screen worlds far before the live-action Joker movies. Back in 1989, when the world of superhero movies and shows was a far different landscape to what it is now, the actor previously appeared in the live-action Superboy show, which was later titled The Adventures of Superboy, and which ran for an impressive four seasons between 1989 and 1992. Joaquin Phoenix appeared in Superboy season 1, episode 20, "Little Hercules", wherein the then child actor played the episode's titular character, Billy Hercules - a child genius who Superboy works with to prevent a submarine from exploding, after Billy sets off its self-destruct system in order to try and impress a girl he likes. Given Superboy is one of the more often forgotten about superhero shows of times past, it's interesting to note that this would serve as an unofficial prequel of sorts for Joaquin Phoenix's later role in DC's overall on-screen lineup a clean thirty years down the line, bringing Phoenix into the franchise's spotlight once more. Joaquin Phoenix's Superboy Role Foreshadowed Him Becoming A Perfect Joker While Joaquin Phoenix didn't play Superboy in the Superboy show, the role of Billy Hercules ironically ended up being an even more fitting precursor role to the actor's eventual casting and performance as Arthur Fleck, the proto-Joker we see in the live-action Joker duology. Billy Hercules is clearly gifted and wishes to use his talents ostensibly for good, but the moral complexity of the character creating a crisis to try and gain the approval of others is a far more nuanced matter, and one that aligns more with Phoenix's Joker on some levels than a conventional protagonist or heroic figure might. Similarly, this prior experience with the world of superhero releases and DC itself may have helped Joaquin Phoenix down the line with his time as the Joker, if only in terms of giving him a prior comparison point to see how far superhero movies and shows have grown and changed in many regards, and also the ways they've stayed the same - which may go some way to explain why Joker itself was so successful, even if the sequel didn't replicate its results.