From standing ovations at international film festivals to public warnings issued by the U.S Army, the publicity around Joker’s release has been as insane and unpredictable as the character himself. Love it or loathe it, Joker is a unique proposition for a comic book film. It’s rated R, it’s removed from being a cog in a larger cinematic universe, and most interestingly, it’s not being merchandised to hell and back like nearly every other film in its category. It’s a peculiar, if not welcome level of restraint from a massive movie studio responsible for one of the biggest films of the year. Seriously, try and name a comic book film from a major movie studio in the last fifteen years that wasn’t launched into theaters alongside an entire mountain of toys, T-shirts, and consumer goods from cereal to toothpaste. You’d be hard pressed. On the flip side, if you walked out of Joker eager to spend some money on merchandise for your work desk, wardrobe, or home office, you literally can’t. As of right now, practically no new Joker merchandise exists.

Want to enjoy this article in video form instead of reading it? Click the video above to see us scouring the New York Comic-Con show floor hopelessly searching for new Joker merchandise!

These photoshopped Joker products aren't real and don't exist in stores right now.

You can dress the entire family (and even the family dog) as Joker for Halloween, as long as it's not the 2019 version.

Nearly every Joker design in the character's history has a Funko Pop... until now.

It’s an even more fascinating move considering the timing of the film’s release. Joker opened a few weeks before Halloween, the perfect time to dress up as a psychotic murderer based on a popular intellectual property or franchise. After all, DC and Warner had no problem merchandising the hell out of the Joker’s last cinematic appearance in 2016’s Suicide Squad, despite that movie having fairly dark themes and also literally having the word “suicide” in the title. Joker and Harley Quinn went on to become the best-selling Halloween costumes of 2016 despite their violent, tumultuous relationship depicted on screen throughout the film. Joker and Harley are iconic and tremendously popular characters even to casual comic book fans, so surely they’d follow suit and make a costume based on Joker’s latest look, right? Wrong.Digging through popular Halloween costume websites, one can find wearable versions of nearly every iteration of Joker from his film, comic book, and video game appearances, but no options exist to temporarily turn yourself into Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker and stomp around town hunting down candy. You’ll have to track down a vibrantly colored suit at a vintage store yourself and then finish things off with a green wig, custom face paint, and a pack of candy cigarettes if you really want to nail the look. There’s currently no rubber mask option like there is for nearly every other Joker, although you can find a few knockoff, bootleg "Arthur Fleck" inspired clown masks on Amazon, none of which are officially licensed. And then there’s Funko Pops - or lack thereof. In 2019 practically every movie, TV show, character, band, sports team, broadway musical, video game, podcast, and retired high school janitor has their own dedicated Funko Pop, along with 17 convention exclusive variants with slightly different paint and a screaming, clawing line of fans ready to buy them. There’s just no new Joker. Maybe this iteration of the Joker is too dark of a film to pass Funko’s toy guidelines? Unlikely, since even Twin Peaks’ Laura Palmer - a literal dead, defiled corpse wrapped in plastic - got her own Funko Pop. So did The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Leatherface and Breaking Bad’s Walter White, both of which have canonically murdered plenty of people in cold blood.

Even 2016’s modern Marvel classic Logan (a film that similarly aimed for that intersectional sweet spot of comic cook fans and Oscar judges) got Funko Pops announced before its theatrical release.. A Funko rep told us that they are “not able to comment on future product plans” so fingers crossed that there’s still hope for a version of Phoenix’s Joker down the line. So maybe merchandise simply wasn’t ready in time for the film’s release? That’s certainly been the case for other big arthouse films based on something kind of geeky and nerdy in the past. The Shape of Water, for example, didn’t receive a line of NECA action figures until long after its release. But after I scoured the densely packed show floor of New York Comic Con - a massive comic book convention that coincided with Joker’s theatrical release - I found no upcoming Joker 2019 merchandise whatsoever. No unpainted prototypes. No placeholder photos with a “COMING SOON” label on them. Nothing. The tremendously detailed, movie replica sixth-scale figure line from Hot Toys would’ve been the perfect opportunity for a Joker figure, since their usual penchant for creating high-end collectibles at a premium price would’ve weeded out toy store children and unsuspecting grandmothers shopping for Christmas gifts. Their NYCC booth gave prime spotlight to their upcoming Dark Knight Hot Toys figure based on Heath Ledger’s infamous prison scene, but no sign of Joaquin's Joker anywhere. Will we see one in a year or two? Possibly, but for now, there’s nothing there.

The Shape of Water was a nerdy, Oscar-winning R-rated film that got a NECA action figure months after the movie hype had subsided a bit.

Deadpool is an R-rated comic book movie about a guy who murders people and you can celebrate that by putting his logo on your child's bedding.

In fact, visiting DC’s booth at New York Comic-Con would make you think that their upcoming Harley Quinn movie was the only thing on the company’s promotional planner. Birds of Prey had merchandise in glass displays and movie costumes for eager fans to snap photos of, but no sign of Joker, in spite of New York Comic-Con taking place on Joker's opening weekend. (Birds of Prey, meanwhile, had just launched its first trailer.) DC went all in on the movie festival circuit for this film, targeting cinephiles over traditional comic book movie audiences. Walking around New York Comic-Con, one would have no idea that Joker was a movie that even existed. Joker’s presence at the even larger San Diego Comic -on a few months ago was equally muted. It seems DC opted to remove the film from the usual fan conventions, a risk that seems to have paid off based on the film’s success at the box office so far.It seems that in the push to elevate Joker above the average comic book movie marketing cycle and position it as not just a comic book movie but as a movie movie - an adult-themed, R-rated one at that - DC decided not to unload a suite of movie replica merchandise, budget party favors, and consumer goods for this film. After all, mass-produced merchandise can have a tendency to cheapen one's artistic vision a bit. It’s possible that Joker was deemed a different kind of film for DC early on and the plan to sell toys around it was scrapped once it was decided to push the film as gritty, arthouse, prestige cinematic excursion for sophisticated, highbrow film connoisseurs. Additionally, the film’s modest $55 million budget could have also carried over to its merchandise and marketing departments, leaving a movie that attempts to simply speak for itself rather than screaming from the speakers of a promotional blimp flying over a comic convention.But then there’s the much different potential scenario that DC was a bit apprehensive about this film and its reception, opting to hold back the usual promotional blasts for a bit (or indefinitely) to see how it was received by the general public. There was a ton of worried chatter among critics and audiences alike (with even the U.S. Military issuing a statement) around the film, with some theaters deciding to ramp up security to protect the safety of their customers, likely due to the events of the Aurora theater shootings a few years prior which Warner Bros. acknowledged leading to Joker's release. Whether this heightened sense of alarm was the result of paranoia, sly marketing, or just a product of the dangerous modern world we live in remains to be seen, but either way, selling bobbleheads and co-branded snacks based on a psychotic, unhinged clown man who kills people in a popular new movie, even if IT Chapter Two had no problem doing exactly that just a few weeks ago. Heading into Halloween and the holidays, comic book movie merchandise is a huge business, and it seems bizarre for DC to just leave money on the table like this. That said, it’s also a refreshing path for the genre, even if it’s one that might have been spawned from apprehension. There are decades of great Joker-related products to buy if you’re itching for a hole in your wallet, but for now , you’ll just have to wait a bit longer - or possibly even forever - to buy any official merchandise based on the 2019 Joker movie.So why do you think there’s no Joker merchandise around the new movie? And would you buy it if it existed? Let us know in the comments below, and for all things movies, video games, and merchandise (when it exists, at least) keep it locked to IGN.

Brian Altano is a host and producer at IGN. He’d totally buy a six-inch Joaquin Phoenix Joker toy or a Joker cereal that laughed when you opened the box. Feel free to follow him on Twitter.