Alec Baldwin joins Joker, possibly as a Donald Trump-inspired version of Thomas Wayne  

Over the years and across the vast multiverse of Batman stories, Bruce Wayne’s father Thomas Wayne has been a wealthy businessman, a conflicted doctor working for the mob, and a murderous bat-themed vigilante avenging the death of his son (that was a weird one). However, Todd Phillips’ Joker movie may have found a uniquely unappetizing take on the oft-doomed patriarch of the Wayne family by having Alec Baldwin play him as an ‘80s businessman in the Donald Trump vein.

Some of that is based on rumors, but we do know for a fact that Alec Baldwin is joining Robert De Niro, Frances Conroy, Marc Maron, and Zazie Beetz in Todd Phillips Joker (with Joaquin Phoenix playing the clown himself). That comes from Deadline, which says there’s “buzz” that Baldwin will be playing Thomas Wayne, but Hollywood Reporter writer Broys Kit takes it further by suggesting his version of the character will be a “cheesy, tanned businessman a la 1980s Trump.”

If that’s the case, it would fit with the ‘80s comedy scene that Phillips’ Batman spin-off reportedly takes place in, but it would be an odd way to handle a character who is traditionally idolized by virtually everyone in the DC universe. He won’t literally be Donald Trump, but we don’t even want to imagine the Elseworlds bullshit that would come from Trump being Bruce’s dad. Forget “Yes father, I shall become a bat,” it would be “Yes father, I shall become an extremely tacky gold toilet seat.”

Trump aside, putting Thomas Wayne in this movie at all is an interesting choice, since—barring a flashback—it means Joker will be set pre-Batman.