Willem Dafoe has "fantasised" about playing a "Joker imposter" character in a movie alongside Joaquin Phoenix.

The 66-year-old star has long been a fans favourite to take on the iconic role, and the 'Spider-Man' actor has admitted he would love to star opposite Phoenix - who played the complex character in 2019 movie 'Joker' - in a film where his alter-ego would be imitating the Joker.

He said: "There is something interesting about, like, if there was a Joker imposter. So it would be possible to have not duelling Jokers but someone that [claims] 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 fantasised about that. But other than that I am not talking to anybody [about it], you're the first one."

But Dafoe admitted he doesn't relish playing villains any more than he does other characters.

When asked if he likes playing villains, he joked to GQ magazine: "I don’t know what that is. I’ll play dumb. You play characters.

"I could say, 'Oh yeah, it's fun to play villains cause you can do things that you can't do in life, or it's fun to play with your dark side.'

"But I don't know. I'm not thinking about those things."

Dafoe's comments come after Phoenix recently hinted at a possible 'Joker' sequel.

In October, he said: "This is an interesting guy. There are some things we could do with this guy and could (explore) further. But as to whether we actually will? I don't know."

It was reported earlier in 2021 that director Todd Phillips was working on a script for the sequel – and he previously suggested that a follow-up had been discussed during filming for the first flick.

Speaking after the movie's release, the filmmaker said: "Well there was (a push for a sequel) even before 'Joker' came out.

"A movie does that kind of business and became that beloved around the world - they had talked to us about it. Joaquin and I had spoken about it anyway as far back as when we were shooting the movie."