Todd Phillips Says Despite Musical Elements, ‘Joker 2’ Won’t “Veer Too Far” From Original Film

The follow-up to the billion-dollar global hit that earned Joaquin Phoenix the Best Actor Oscar statue back in 2020, Warner Bros. spent yesterday promoting the mature comic book sequel “Joker: Folie à Deux” at CinemaCon 2024 in Las Vegas and unveiled a new trailer.

And that trailer has raised all sorts of questions, including how much of a musical the film is and how different it will be from the original “Joker” film. And well, during Warner Bros’s panel at the event (read more about the overall event here), writer/director Todd Phillips (via Entertainment Weekly) seemingly answered that question.

“We never really talked about it like that, but I like to say it’s a film where music is an essential element. To me, that doesn’t veer too far from the first film,” Phillips said of the new movie incorporating a musical element. “Arthur [Fleck] ’s weird and aloof and all these things, but he has music in him. He has a grace to him. That informed a lot of the dancing in the first film… it didn’t feel like that big of a step here. It’s different, but I think it’ll make sense when you see it.”

READ MORE: ‘Joker Folie à Deux’ Budget Balloons To $200 Million

Phillips also discussed choosing Lady Gaga for his new take on the live-action Harley Quinn role (Margot Robbie previously played her in the two “Suicide Squad” films). Phillips said part of the reason he cast her was meeting her on “A Star Is Born,” the Bradley Cooper-directed movie that he executive produced.

“We cast Gaga because she’s magic,” he explained. “I was a producer on ‘A Star Is Born.’ That was the first time I really met her and got to watch her work. As we were writing this script, Scott [Silver], who I wrote it with, kept going back to her.”

It’s hard not to be impressed by Phillips’ success in attempting to try something different from previous cinematic Joker incarnations. By channeling Martin Scorsese’s films like “King of Comedy” and “Taxi Driver” with the first film, he gave the film a unique edginess and despair. At the same time, the new installment, from the looks of the new trailer, seems to be mixing various elements from “Dancer In The Dark,” “La La Land,” and “One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.” 

The two “Joker” films certainly give us hope that there are plenty of different kinds of stories to tell with the DC Comics universe that aren’t automatically repeating things we’ve already experienced in the superhero genre (see Matt Reeves’ “The Penguin” series, for example). Now, the question remains: will they make a third “Joker” film, and can ‘Folie à Deux’ repeat the billion-dollar phenomenon of the first film? The answer likely lies in the box office response.

Warner Bros. will be releasing “Joker: Folie à Deux” on October 4, and you can watch that new trailer that dropped last night below.