Despite Vera Drew's confident insistence that her film firmly falls within the acceptable boundaries of fair use and copyright law, she also acknowledges that some of her publicity decisions warranted a critical eye from DC. During a 2022 interview with Collider, Drew said, "I mean, I get it, look, I put an 'illegal comic book movie' on the poster, but that was just to get your butts in the seats."
Even if everything that Drew claims is true, it seems unlikely that DC will permit "The People's Joker" to see the light of day. Not without a brutal fight, at least. Upcoming "Joker: Folie à Deux" aside, Drew's parody is a queer coming-of-age story that depicts the Joker as a transgender woman.
As of this writing, the trans community is under extreme duress from abhorrent political ideologies that would see them wholly erased. Given that James Gunn has been careful to avoid taking political stances publicly one could expect that there's almost zero chance Gunn plans to make a decision that could be perceived as something adjacent to a political stance. And permitting "The People's Joker" to screen would likely be perceived as a political stance.
