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Listen, I know as a true-blue, Criterion Channel-subscribing Real Cinema head, it’s against the code to wish the strictures and thankless commitment of franchise filmmaking on exciting actors and directors we like and respect. But as I filed out of my local AMC the other night, in between involuntarily muttering Charity and Howzthat to myself, my first immediate thought was Jack O’Connell should be the next Joker.

That is to say, I want to see Jack O’Connell go for a villainous hat trick, and level up while doing it. He’s now two-for-two on playing endlessly charming Evil People, first as Remmick the culture-vulture vampire in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (which at press time is not yet but sure to be an Oscar contender) and now in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple as Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal, a tracksuit-wearing Satanist. Both of these villains are, in execution, way more endearing and funnier than they have any business being on paper. If you recall, the first few weeks of Sinners post-release social-mania were dominated by Remmick memes, powered by the different comedic nuances in O’Connell’s performance during the scene where he’s denied entry to the juke joint. Together, Coogler and O’Connell turn what could’ve been an arch “threat” into something more impish and playful, a scene-stealer even though the audience should dread his presence. (This is not new territory for Coogler: see also Michael B Jordan and Killmonger.)

But Bone Temple’s Jimmy Crystal is an even more impressive feat of character-creation and execution. The first act dials Jimmy’s violent nihilism up so high that it almost turned me off to the entire movie overall. But by the time he connects with Ralph Fiennes and they start having a scene-chewing showdown, it’s hard not to be won over by Jimmy’s culty catchphrases and the odd tics O’Connell deploys to make the character a proper weirdo, as opposed to a typical cult leader playing up his shtick for his followers.

Menace. Showmanship. Charm. These are the hallmarks of a good villain, in blockbusters or otherwise, and it’s rarer than it should be to see an antagonist hit all three. More often than not, the balance gets fucked up like a Rubik’s Cube, with an emphasis on one at the expense of one or both of the others. O’Connell (in service of two great directors in Coogler and then Nia DaCosta), has proven that he can deftly manage all three. Now imagine what he could do on an even bigger stage?

Sinners is a commercial and critical darling, but if I have one major critique, it’s that Remmick and the vampire lore he’s fronting are a little underdeveloped. Bone Temple is also enjoying good word-of-mouth culturally and critically while performing pretty well by January box-office standards. But both films feel like the moment before O’Connell takes his winning villainy to a big league part. I rewatched Dark Knight for the first time in years during the Holiday Void, and in the wake of the Snyderverse and those terrible Todd Phillips movies, the shadow of Heath Ledger somehow looms even larger. Respectfully, I don’t quite see Barry Keoghan as truly being up to the task of filling it.

But that’s putting the cart before the horse and presuming a lot about the intentions of Matt Reeves and James Gunn. The Joker was just where my brain went to first—the most obvious pairing of O’Connell’s wolfish grin and his way with a laugh line and an “iconic villain” part. Truly, I’m just excited to see more of him regardless of where he chooses to pop up next. But—even if it puts him at risk of being typecast—it should be a role that continues to magnify his unique talent for playing compelling, off-kilter, magnetic freaks. And if it’s in service of elevating some wayward franchise from mid to high art, the game would be all the better for it.

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