Willem Dafoe, who just returned to the realm of superheroes, will now open to make his hosting debut owing to the courtesy of the 8H studio. Ahead of the January 29th broadcast of Saturday Night Live, SNL has revealed that Spider-Man: No Way Home actor William Defoe will host the show. As a guest star on 30 Rock, Dafoe is promoting both Sony’s latest Spiderman flick as well as Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley.
On the 29th, Katy Perry will perform as a special guest with Dafoe. This will be the pop star’s fourth engagement on the show, which just opened her own Las Vegas residency at Resorts World Theatre.
Will Forte, a longtime Saturday Night Live cast member, will host the event this weekend, on Saturday, January 22. The comic first made appearances on the program in 2002 and 2010. The program’s genesis may be traced back to a skit performed by Lorne Michaels on his talk show. This year’s Eurovision Song Contest winner Maneskin will be performing with Forte.
When asked about the possibility of Dafoe playing an iteration of the Crime Prince of Gotham opposite academy award winner Joaquin Phoenix in the Joker sequel, the Lighthouse alum recently went to a magazine interview to make his thoughts known—based on fan casting, no less.
“There is something interesting about, like, if there was a Joker imposter,” Dafoe said in a recent interview with GQ. “So it would be possible to have not only dueling Jokers but someone that says to be the Joker that isn’t the Joker. And that kind of opens up the possibility of an interesting story, particularly if you had Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, and then you had someone who was either imitating or riffing off what he did. I fantasized about that. But other than that I am not talking to anybody [about it], you’re the first one.”
Defoe and Joker
Even before Dafoe’s return to No way Home was announced, rumors started to circulate that he may take up another role as The Joker from DC Comics. When asked about the fan casts in a recent conversation with GQ Magazine, Willem Dafoe joked about maybe appearing in a sequel opposite to Joaquin Phoenix.
“There is something interesting about, like, if there was a Joker imposter,” Dafoe explained. “So it would be possible to have not only dueling Jokers but someone that says to be the Joker that isn’t the Joker. And that kind of opens up the possibility of an interesting story, particularly if you had Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, and then you had someone who was either imitating or riffing off what he did. I fantasized about that. But other than that I am not talking to anybody [about it], you’re the first one
According to the most current rumors, Phoenix alongside director/co-writer Todd Phillips might be set up to return for the sequel to the 2019 film.
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