Despite the recent surprise announcement that Jared Leto was set to star in a Joker spin-off, the Joker origin film with Joaquin Phoenix is still happening! This could really cause some headaches among fans. How can two versions of the same character exist in one shared universe?

Yesterday’s announcement that Jared Leto will star in and produce a the Suicide Squad spin-off about The Joker sparked some concern  about the other Joker film Warner Bros. had announced. The obvious problem was that Joaquin Phoenix was cast as The Joker in the origin movie.

According to Deadline, it’s going to be easy to differentiate one movie from the other, because Leto's spin-off will be part of the DCEU, and Phoenix's origin story will be the first Elseworlds installment.

We can also expect to see Leto as The Joker in Suicide Squad 2 and the upcoming film about the character’s relationship with Harley Quinn. Plus, it’s been rumored that Leto will play the supervillain in either Gotham City Sirens or Birds of Prey.

We should also note that with the exception of Suicide Squad 2, these movies are all still in development and may not ever see the light of day. This has happened before, most notably with The Flash.

What do you think? Will Warner Bros. actually make two separate movies featuring two different actors as the same character? And if they don’t make both, which film should the studio choose to produce?