The Joker movie trailer 2019 rollout happened in two main waves: a teaser released on April 3, 2019, and a full trailer on August 28, 2019. Both previewed Todd Phillips' standalone origin story with Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, and the film reached U.S. theaters on October 4, 2019.
When Did the Joker Trailers Come Out in 2019?
Warner Bros. spaced the marketing across roughly six months, so each drop landed with a different job to do.
- Teaser trailer: April 3, 2019
- Full trailer: August 28, 2019
- Venice Film Festival premiere: August 31, 2019
- U.S. theatrical release: October 4, 2019
- TV spots and scene clips: September through early October 2019
The teaser introduced the tone. The August trailer confirmed the plot and the supporting cast. By the time the film opened, most viewers already knew this was a grounded, R-rated character study rather than a shared-universe spectacle.
What Did the First Joker Trailer Show?
The April teaser set the mood with a slow, somber soundtrack and long shots of a worn-down Gotham City in 1981. It showed Arthur Fleck working as a clown for hire, spinning a going-out-of-business sign on a sidewalk, riding the subway, and caring for his mother. Brief flashes covered his notebook of jokes, a visit to Arkham State Hospital, and the moment he paints his face. The teaser closed on Arthur in full clown makeup, which framed the whole film as a transformation story rather than a reveal of a finished villain.
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What the Second Trailer Added
The full trailer filled in the pieces the teaser held back. It leaned into the Murray Franklin talk show, with Robert De Niro as the host, and showed the subway confrontation that turns Arthur into a symbol for protesters in clown masks. It also introduced Thomas Wayne, hinted at Arthur's unreliable grip on reality, and used the stair dance that became one of the film's most quoted images. Viewers who watched both trailers could map the arc from struggling performer to public figure without knowing the ending.
Cast and Crew at a Glance
- Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck
- Robert De Niro as Murray Franklin
- Zazie Beetz as Sophie Dumond
- Frances Conroy as Penny Fleck
- Brett Cullen as Thomas Wayne
- Directed by Todd Phillips, co-written with Scott Silver
- Original score by Hildur Guðnadóttir
- Runtime: 122 minutes, rated R
Why the Trailer Mattered
Joker sat outside the continuity of the other DC films, so the trailers carried extra weight. There was no crossover to sell and no franchise setup to explain. Audiences had to be convinced by performance and atmosphere instead, and the footage delivered that. The marketing also signaled the R rating early, which set expectations for a darker, more intimate film than the usual comic book release.
Reception and Awards
The film premiered at the 76th Venice Film Festival and won the Golden Lion, an unusual result for a comic book adaptation. It went on to earn 11 Academy Award nominations and won Best Actor for Joaquin Phoenix and Best Original Score for Hildur Guðnadóttir. Worldwide grosses passed one billion dollars, a rare result for an R-rated film. Those results retroactively shaped how people read the trailers: what looked like a risky experiment turned into an awards-season contender.
Where to Find the Joker 2019 Trailers Today
The teaser and the full trailer both remain on the official Warner Bros. Pictures channels. Physical and digital releases of the film include the trailers among their bonus features, so the home edition is often the easiest place to watch them back to back. For anyone studying how a studio markets an R-rated, standalone origin story, the two-trailer structure is a clean example: one film to set the mood, one to explain the story.
Common Questions
Was the Joker trailer a Super Bowl spot?
No. The first footage arrived in April 2019 as a standalone teaser, not during the NFL championship broadcast.
Did the trailer spoil the ending?
Neither trailer showed the final act. Both stopped at the talk show and the clown-mask protests, leaving Arthur's fate open.
Is Joker connected to other DC movies?
No. It is a standalone story with its own version of Gotham City and no shared continuity with other Batman films.