Todd Phillips’s Joker made over $1 billion when it was released in 2019 and earned its formidable lead, Joaquin Phoenix, a best-actor Oscar. So, it was, of course, only a matter of time before we heard that the twisted psychological thriller centered on the green-haired super villain and Batman adversary would be getting a sequel. What is startling, however, is that the new project is a jukebox musical and Lady Gaga is taking on one of its starring roles.
On June 13, 2022, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that the multi-hyphenate, last seen on screen as the flamboyant Patrizia Reggiani in House of Gucci, was in early talks to join Phoenix in Joker: Folie à Deux. (The film’s title, revealed by Phillips on social media, is a reference to a medical term for an identical or similar mental disorder that affects two or more individuals, usually members of the same family.) Then, on August 4 of that year, she herself confirmed the news, posting a musical teaser to social media that shows the silhouettes of the two actors dancing cheek to cheek.
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For the sequel, Phillips will be returning to the director’s chair and has co-written the script with Scott Silver, with whom he collaborated on Joker. The Hollywood Reporter’s sources added that it will be a musical and that Gaga will play Harley Quinn, Joker’s baseball bat-wielding partner in crime, embodied by Margot Robbie in Suicide Squad opposite Jared Leto’s menacing clown. Joining her will be Zazie Beetz as Sophie Dumond, our titular anti-hero’s former neighbor from the first film, as well as Catherine Keener and Brendan Gleeson in undisclosed roles, with some of the new release taking place in and around Arkham Asylum, where the story left off. A release date was announced, too: October 4, 2024. On February 14, 2023, a first still followed, showing Gaga and Phoenix staring into each other’s eyes.
Is that blood on their faces or paint? Is the title Joker: Folie à Deux a nod to a condition our lead shares with Harley Quinn, or one he shared with his troubled mother Penny, as played by Frances Conroy in Joker? We don’t yet know—though some more details have emerged since. On March 22, 2024, sources told Variety that “the movie leans heavily towards being mostly a jukebox musical, as it integrates at least 15 reinterpretations of very well-known songs.” One of them is believed to be “That’s Entertainment” from the 1953 musical The Band Wagon. Per the publication, there is, however also “a door open for an original song (or two) to be added to the final version. Details regarding who would pen the tracks, or sing the numbers are unknown. We do know, according to sources, [that] Hildur Guðnadóttir, the Oscar-winning composer of the first Joker film, is said to infuse her distinctive, haunting [music] cues into each number.” Here’s hoping Gaga will write and perform the new tracks herself—and that more Oscars are on the cards for both her and Guðnadóttir come 2025.
A thrillingly bonkers teaser followed on April 10, before the official trailer dropped on July 23. They include nods to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and musicals from Hollywood’s Golden Age, resulting in something that feels like a mindbending sibling to La La Land. Bring it on.
