'Joker' sequel confirmed and title revealed by director Todd Phillips
Joker director Todd Phillips has confirmed a sequel is officially underway.
In a post on Instagram on Tuesday (June 7), the director shared the cover of the script written by Phillips and collaborator Scott Silver, along with a photo of Joaquin Phoenix reading the screenplay.
- READ MORE: ‘Joker’ review: a melancholic psychodrama punctuated by splashes of shocking violence
As revealed by the script, the sequel is titled Joker: Folie à Deux, which translates to “shared madness” or a shared delusional disorder. While it’s unclear how this applies to the film’s plot, some have speculated the sequel could introduce Joker’s troubled love interest Harley Quinn.
Released in 2019, Joker provided an origin story for the DC villain through the lens of a psychological thriller. Phoenix played Arthur Fleck aka the Joker, a failed clown and aspiring stand-up comedian who suffers from a neurological disorder.
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The film also starred Robert De Niro as talk show host Murray Franklin, Zazie Beetz as Sophie Dumond and Frances Conroy as Arthur’s mother Penny.
Phoenix won Best Actor at the Oscars in 2020 for his performance, while composer Hildur Guðnadóttir won the award for Best Original Score.
Earlier this year, DC released The Batman with Robert Pattinson as the caped crusader. The film exists in different continuity to Phoenix’s Joker, having cast Barry Keoghan as a different version of Batman’s arch nemesis.
Colin Farrell is set to reprise his role as Oswald Cobblepot aka the Penguin from The Batman in a series for HBO Max. The show will follow the character as he “rises through the darkened ranks” in Gotham.
In a four-star review of The Batman, NME wrote: “Director Matt Reeves has mixed up gritty mob drama with film-noir detective thriller – and thanks to Paul Dano’s ultra-creepy villain, some psychological horror too.
“Most of the time it comes off brilliantly. Pattinson plays him with a dour fanaticism that only occasionally topples over into parody.”