More than Metropolis is for Superman or Coast City is for Green Lantern and perhaps even more than New York City is for Spider-Man, Gotham City is a character unto itself within the Batman mythos. And although the Dark Knight was nowhere to be seen, that quality largely held true for the origin story of his greatest villain with Gotham turning Arthur Fleck into the Clown Prince of Crime in Joker. On the special features of the film’s digital release, director Todd Phillips revealed which real city his Gotham was based on, saying: