Though it seemed unlikely on October 4, when “Joker” made its debut in theaters, a sequel is officially in the works, according to a new report. It’s amazing how $1 billion will change things.
According to THR, Todd Phillips is developing a sequel to “Joker” that he is expected to co-write with Scott Silver. Though it’s unclear what the story might be for the next film in the franchise, it appears that the film is just one idea (out of many) that the filmmaker has to expand his DC slate.
READ MORE: ‘Joker’ Is The First R-Rated Film To Hit $1 Billion & Reaches Milestone Without China
The report claims that after the comic book film debuted to almost $100 million in its opening weekend, Phillips met with the head of WB, Toby Emmerich. The director had an idea to expand what he did with “Joker” and begin to adapt various other DC characters with new, “Joker”-esque origin stories. However, all that was decided at the time was that Phillips could work on a direct sequel to his blockbuster film.
As you might expect, Joaquin Phoenix is expected to return for a sequel, as the studio had already locked him into the project with an option in his contract for one more film. Not only would this film mark yet another rare comic book film for Phoenix, who is expected to land an Oscar nomination, and perhaps a win, for his turn in “Joker,” but a new film in the franchise would be his first-ever sequel.
Obviously, it’s still far too early to tell when we might see a “Joker” sequel arrive in theaters. Depending on how quickly they can put together a story and WB approves, we could be looking at a fairly quick turnaround, as studios tend to want comic book sequels roughly two years after the first film. However, WB has shown in the past, with films like “Wonder Woman 1984” and the upcoming “Aquaman 2,” the studio is willing to give longer breaks between films if it must.