Martin Scorsese says he hasn't watched Joker: 'Why do I need to? I get it. It's fine.'

We're leaving the Martin Scorsese on Marvel movies discourse in 2019, but now, the Martin Scorsese on DC movies discourse has arrived.

When asked by The New York Times to name some of his favorite films from the past year, Scorsese noted there's plenty he's hoping to catch up on. But apparently not high on that list is Joker, the recent DC movie heavily inspired by Scorsese's The King of Comedy and Taxi Driver that Scorsese considered producing.

"I saw clips of it," Scorsese told the Times of Joker. "I know it. So it's like, why do I need to? I get it. It's fine."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Scorsese previously described Joker in an interview as a "remarkable work" without actually specifying that he's watched the final product, instead saying, "I know the script very well."

The legendary director's rave "I saw clips of it" review of Joker, which his own film The Irishman is competing against at Sunday's Golden Globe Awards, comes after he described Marvel movies as "not cinema," setting off an onslaught of follow-up quotes, responses, and even a Times op-ed by Scorsese.

After all that, Disney CEO Bob Iger said he plans to set up a meeting with Scorsese, though Scorsese noted in this Times interview he reached out to Iger for a meeting months earlier as part of his nonprofit's effort to restore and preserve 20th Century Fox films.

"Then all this came up," Scorsese told the Times. “So, we'll have a lot to talk about."