What’s in store in the sequel to Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix?

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With over $1 billion in worldwide revenues at the box office, a Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival as well as 11 Oscar nominations (Joaquin Phoenix won Best Actor and Hildur Guðnadóttir Best Original Score), Todd Phillips’ Joker was a triumph. And quite deservedly! This film, which is closer to a social critique or a psychological thriller than to a traditional superhero movie, turns the spotlight on Batman’s iconic archenemy, Arthur Fleck, played by the 47-year-old actor Joaquin Phoenix, a man despised by society who, by becoming an uncompromising villain and terrorising his fellow humans, aspires to once more gain control of his own life, punish those who have humiliated him and restore his self-esteem. A limitless theme, as shown by the new adaptation of The Batman by Matt Reeves, released this year and starring Robert Pattinson, which proves that the Batman mythology still sparks our collective imagination.

On Wednesday, 8th June, 2022, the director Todd Philipps unveiled an unequivocal Instagram post: it showed the cover of the script of the Joker sequel, as well as a photo of Joaquin Phoenix reading it. As with the first film, the movie is co-written by Todd Phillips and Scott Silver. The (working) title: Folie à deux. If Joker was originally a one-shot enterprise dedicated to the birth of the Prince of Crime, what could the sequel possibly hold? The title suggests that in the next instalment, the evil clown – an avenging hero who uses crime as a weapon to restore equality in a deeply unjust society – will not be the only one wreaking havoc in Gotham. Could Harley Quinn be joining the game? In the comics, she is originally the Joker’s psychologist, with whom she falls in love before becoming his partner in crime. If this were the case, the introduction of this female character would allow the director to explore the psyche of the Joker through his personal feelings, which was already what made the first movie so powerful. Indeed, it should be noted that Folie à deux is also a psychiatric term. Here, the expression refers to a clinical condition in which a person in prolonged contact with a delusional individual will end up adopting the same behaviour. Unless the title refers to Arthur Fleck’s split personality. Either way, with Joaquin Phoenix currently busy shooting Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, the second Joker won’t start shooting until early 2023. In the meantime, excitement will run high…