When “Joker” was being promoted, director Todd Phillips made it clear he didn’t think a sequel would be appropriate. Then as the buzz built, he and star Joaquin Phoenix started to warm up to the idea. But as of now, no plans for a sequel to “Joker” have been officially made. But in a new interview with IGN, the filmmaker thinks that discussions are inevitable, but the idea of beginning development on a sequel is still pretty far away.
“Well there was [that push] even before ‘Joker’ came out,” revealed the filmmaker. “A movie does that kind of business and became that beloved around the world – they had talked to us about it. Joaquin and I had spoken about it anyway as far back as when we were shooting the movie. But in all honesty, we haven’t gone any further on it. Even Warner Bros. hasn’t. I think they’re just giving us time, and if we can figure it out, and if Joaquin’s down to do it, we would do it. But we haven’t gotten near that yet.”
News of a sequel reached a fever pitch when it was revealed (prematurely, it seems) that Phillips and WB had officially begun development on a new sequel and potentially other films that follow a similar character-study formula that carried “Joker.” It was later revealed that wasn’t the case, but Phillips did confirm that he initially pitched WB on multiple films that could exist in the same sort of universe as “Joker.”
And in the new interview, he goes a little deeper into what that might have looked like and why WB wasn’t interested.
“No, it wasn’t freeform. I pitched it as three movies, ‘Joker’ being the first with me, and then these two other movies, with two other directors,” said Phillips. “But I don’t really want to name them, because then it’ll become a thing and I’m pulling these directors into it when I’ve never even told them about it. It was just me telling Warner Bros. about it.”
He added, “I still think it’s a great idea. But I’ll be honest with you, their argument – well, it wasn’t an argument – their thing is, there’s no reason to create its own label, there’s no reason to go to all that trouble. Just when we want to one of these kind of movies, we’ll do it, just like ‘Joker’ is. I get that, but I also thought it was just kind of cool if it became a thing.”
This is the sort of comment that will send fandom into overdrive, trying to come up with potential directors and characters that could have worked on the two non-‘Joker’ films. But obviously, this was all pie-in-the-sky discussions, with the individual filmmakers just mentioned and not actually in discussions. But maybe, after the financial and critical success of “Joker,” especially if it wins an Oscar or two, WB will warm up to the idea of creating an adults-only branch of its superhero business?