The sequel to 2019’s dark Batman spin-off Joker – announced back in June with the full title Joker: Folie à Deux – has been given an official release date.

• READ MORE: Here’s what we know about the Joker sequel

Deadline broke the news overnight, revealing that the Todd Phillips-directed, Joaquin Phoenix-starring film would be released on October 4, 2024. It echoes the release of the first Joker, which made it to cinemas on the same day in 2019. Warner Bros. will be hoping to emulate the explosive success of that film, as it became the first R-rated film in history to make over $1billion (£823million) at the global box office.

According to Deadline, production on Joker: Folie à Deux will begin in December. Like its predecessor, the film will be unrelated to the DC Extended Universe, which currently has five films in the pipeline between now and the end of next year: Black Adam, Shazam! Fury Of The Gods, Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom, The Flash and Blue Beatle.

The news of Joker: Folie à Deux’s release date comes amid controversy for the DCEU: earlier this week, it was announced that the upcoming Batgirl movie would be pulled from Warner Bros’ release schedule, despite being in the final stages of post-production and costing an estimated $90million (£74million) to produce. The film’s directors, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, have since shared that they are “saddened and shocked” by the decision.

Rumours of a Joker sequel first began to swirl almost immediately after the 2019 film was released. After it was officially announced, it emerged that Lady Gaga is in talks to star as Harley Quinn, and that the film – the title of which translates to “shared madness” in French – will be a musical.

NME gave the first Joker a five-star review, with Greg Wetherall calling it “a melancholic psychodrama punctuated by splashes of shocking violence”.