Just two days after we reported that Alec Baldwin had joined Todd Phillips’ Batman spin-off Joker as a Donald Trump-inspired version of Batman’s dad Thomas Wayne, Baldwin has abruptly—and somewhat rudely—dropped out of the project. Speaking with USA Today, Baldwin simply said, “I’m no longer doing that movie,” as if his involvement wasn’t just announced on Monday. As for this sudden change of plans, Baldwin says there were “scheduling” issues, which would’ve been nice to know about before we spent time reflecting on how terrible this whole idea sounded.
We no longer have to be cautiously optimistic, because this is no longer happening, so we’re just gonna say it: A Trump-y version of Thomas Wayne sounds like a bad idea, and Alec Baldwin playing the Trump-y version of Thomas Wayne sounds like the worst idea. Everybody’s sick of his Trump on Saturday Night Live anyway, so we really don’t need to see more of Baldwin making that stupid face in a movie about Joaquin Phoenix playing the Joker. Other bad ideas: Alec Baldwin running for president, being nice to Woody Allen, and whining about talk show hosts talking about real stuff.
Luckily, Baldwin isn’t too upset over missing out on this weird movie, with him telling USA Today that “there are 25 guys who can play that part.” A dismissive comment like that has to make you wonder why he bothered to take the role in the first place, but he really only had it for about five minutes anyway. Now at least he can back to the very important roles that only he can play, like the Boss Baby or the guy in the Mission: Impossible movies who is basically just Alec Baldwin with a different job title.