What do we know about the confirmed Joker sequel with Joaquin Phoenix?
A pair of social media post by director Todd Phillips hint that a sequel to his 2019 “Joker” is in the works and Joaquin Phoenix will play the iconic role.
The Joker, which recast the story of Batman’s nemesis, is coming back to the big screen. In a pair of Instagram posts director Todd Phillips unveiled the script with a working title and Joaquin Phoenix, who won an Oscar for Best Actor for playing the title role, posted one reading said script.
Phillips name can be seen on the red cover of the script along with Scott Silver, with whom he collaborated on the first Joker screenplay. The title of the follow-up to the 2019 film, which was the highest grossing R-rated movie ever made, may give some idea for what to expect, Joker: Folie à Deux.
What do we know about the Joker sequel?
There is very little to go off at this time and it hasn’t even been confirmed if Phoenix will reprise his role as Arthur Fleck, a struggling comedian and part-time clown who rises to become a folk hero in Gotham City. However, we can assume that he has had time to read the script, it is dated 18 May 2022. He also worked incredibly hard to attain his signature laugh for the Joker.
The title Joker: Folie à Deux, may give us some morsels to chew on though. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, the term means “The presence of the same or similar delusional ideas in two persons closely associated with one another.” So could we be seeing the Joker teaming up with another supervillain?
Perhaps his girlfriend Harley Quinn. Or could it be a reference to the Dark Knight, the original left open the possibility that Bruce Wayne and Fleck were brothers. Something that wasn’t in the comic books, but neither was Phillips’ and Silver’s back story for the antihero character.
There are sure to be concerns about copycats
Before the release of Joker in 2019 alarms were sounded about potential copycats. US military officials warned in a memorandum prior to its release that there was a “credible potential mass shooting” threat somewhere in the nation at a movie theater. Both director and star actor pushed back on the idea that the movie could be blamed for any real-life violence.
“We’re making a movie about a fictional character in a fictional world, ultimately, and your hope is that people take it for what it is,” Phillips told Vanity Fair. Phoenix was of similar mind.
“Well, I think that, for most of us, you’re able to tell the difference between right and wrong. And those that aren’t are capable of interpreting anything in the way that they may want to,” he told the press. “People misinterpret lyrics from songs. They misinterpret passages from books. So I don’t think it’s the responsibility of a filmmaker to teach the audience morality or the difference between right or wrong. I mean, to me, I think that that’s obvious.”