Joker: Folie à Deux director Todd Phillips shared what makes the jukebox musical direction of the DC sequel so unique and what inspired him to bring in Lady Gaga for the sequel film.
“We never really talked about it like that, but I like to say it’s a film where music is an essential element. To me, that doesn’t veer too far from the first film,” Phillips said during the Warner Bros. presentation at CinemaCon Las Vegas (per Entertainment Weekly).
“Arthur [Fleck]’s weird and aloof and all these things, but he has music in him. He has a grace to him. That informed a lot of the dancing in the first film . . . it didn’t feel like that big of a step here. It’s different, but I think it’ll make sense when you see it.”
The CinemaCon event featured footage from the upcoming Joker sequel where the institutionalized Arthur Fleck/Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) finds a fateful romance in Arkham Asylum with fellow patient Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn (Gaga). The pair share fantastical, and often violent, delusions of grandeur set to familiar musical numbers. Phillips cites Gaga’s Oscar-winning drama A Star is Born as the inspiration to cast her as Harley.
“We cast Gaga because she’s magic,” Phillips said. “I was a producer on A Star Is Born . . . That was the first time I really met her and got to watch her work. As we were writing this script, Scott [Silver], who I wrote it with, kept going back to her.”
Who else appears in Joker: Folie à Deux?
Set outside Zack Snyder‘s DCEU and James Gunn‘s DCU, Joker: Folie à Deux is a sequel to 2019’s Joker. The R-rated DC movie earned over $1 billion worldwide and earned Phoenix the Academy Award for Best Actor. Returning for the sequel is Zazie Beetz as Sophie Dumond. New additions to the franchise include Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Jacob Lofland, Steve Coogan, Ken Leung, and Harry Lawtey.
Joker: Folie á Deux is scheduled for release on October 4, 2024.
