October 2025 has provided a suitably spooky live-action reimagining of the 1989 Batman‘s Joker design. The annals of superhero movie history have brought a series of seriously striking iterations of the Joker to life, further cementing the character’s place in DC’s mythos as one of its most prominent and famous supervillains.

While many of the Joker’s live-action appearances have become synonymous with the character – such as is the case with Jack Nicholson’s Joker in the 1989 Batman – recent history has provided relatively few new live-action versions of the Joker and his design, making October’s new look at an upgraded version of the 1989 Joker design yet more noteworthy.

2025 Just Gave Us One Of The Coolest Live-Action Joker Designs In An Unusual Place

With the DC Universe’s upcoming releases set to introduce the franchise’s own Joker sometime soon, The Batman‘s prior Joker tease making the impending release of The Batman 2 all the more exciting, and the door very much left open for other on-screen takes on the Clown Prince Of Crime, there’s a lot of potential for the character’s future.

However, October 2025 provided a look at a solid live-action Joker design that is outside of these norms, appearing instead in a music video. Ice Nine Kills’ trailer teasing the upcoming music video for the band’s newest song, The Laugh Track, features a range of nightmarish and familiar clowns, including DC’s very best.

The Laugh Track’s Joker design is clearly inspired by the classic 1989 Batman costume, but adds its own Halloween-themed horror-esque flair to the look, complete with scars around the eyes to match the Joker’s mouth scars, a purple crocodile-skin style leather coat, and a different hairstyle.

All in all, this creates an updated sort of version of the original Joker design, which has already gained attention online. With a more classically comic-esque depiction of the Joker having arguably been last shown in a live-action movie with The Dark Knight – as Joaquin Phoenix and Jared Leto’s Jokers made bigger adjustments – this is an unsurprisingly striking look.

Ice Nine Kills’ Joker Design Makes The DC Universe’s Upcoming Villain Debut Even More Exciting

The Ice Nine Kills music video teaser is interesting not just for giving us another glimpse at what the Joker can look like in live-action, but also for how it reiterates the standard that future Joker designs need to live up to – both compared to Batman, and compared to the standard of Joker costumes outside of DC’s direct world.

While this is striking for The Batman 2‘s teased Joker, this is most directly relevant for the DC Universe and its upcoming take on the clown. Since the DCU aims to replicate the world of the comics more closely, its Joker design needs to match this goal while also living up to being its own distinct take.

That said, the standard of Joker costume the Ice Nine Kills music video demonstrates makes the prospect of the DCU’s Joker all the more exciting because of the high standard it sets – as, ultimately, it’s clear building on the previous backdrop of live-action movies that nailed a more classic comic-style look for the villain can pay off effectively.