By most accounts, from those that have seen the film and those that are involved, “Joker” is not some chapter 1 in a potential franchise. But when director Todd Phillips teased that there could be more “Joker” films with Joaquin Phoenix as the star, people got all excited. But according to the filmmaker, that original comment was taken a bit out of context.
Speaking to GameSpot, Phillips explained his comments about a future “Joker” sequel and basically squashed the idea.
“It’s so annoying,” Phillips said. “You say one thing and it becomes the story for 24 hours. The quote was, ‘I will do anything Joaquin wants to do.’ And I would. But the movie’s not set up to [have] a sequel. We always pitched it as one movie, and that’s it.”
He further clarified, making sure this time, there was no ambiguity in his answer.
“We have no plan for a sequel,” he added. “We made this movie, I pitched it to Warner Bros. as one movie, it exists in its own world, that’s it. It’s not about worldbuilding, it’s not about other versions, it’s like, here’s our version of the origin story, that’s it. That’s what I meant.”
Obviously, this is far from the first time that someone has said that a film doesn’t need a sequel. But this is also 2019. And if Warner Bros. sees dollar signs in the possibility of a sequel, you better believe that the studio will do it, with or without Phillips. Honestly, with the way things are going with franchise filmmaking nowadays, we could easily see the studio dumping Phoenix and just continuing the story with a whole new set of folks, as long as the name “Joker” is in the title.
Well, before we put the cart before the horse, “Joker” has to actually hit theaters. And the comic book film will do so on October 4.
Here are some new images from the film, as well:
