Two years ago, Warner Bros found the ultimate hit in Joker, a different kind of comic book movie that put a new spin on the Batman villain sans action set pieces or a cape and cowl. Todd Phillips’ film hit that sweet spot of being a gigantic commercial success and Oscar darling, earning Joaquin Phoenix his first Oscar win almost 20 years after first being recognized by the Academy for his performance in Gladiator. Since then, we’ve heard whispers of Joker 2, but where is the sequel now?
Back in late 2019, a trade report shared that Todd Phillips was in negotiations with Warner Bros to make a second Joker film with Joaquin Phoenix. But then we didn’t really hear about much movement there after. When Phoenix recently spoke with The Playlist about the Joker 2 rumors, he said this:
I mean, I dunno. From when we were shooting, we started to —you know, uhh, this is an interesting guy. There are some things we could do with this guy and could [explore] further. But as to whether we actually will? I don’t know.
And thus, the future of The Joker remains as cryptic as ever. Joaquin Phoenix sounds like he’s just going with the flow. When the movie became a huge hit, he and Todd Phillips were asked about the potential for a sequel. At first, both of them assured audiences that it was a standalone movie and following the initial report, it was allegedly debunked, saying that Phillips and his writing partner Scott Silver had yet to consider Joker 2.
As Joaquin Phoenix stated more recently, it could theoretically happen, but it doesn’t look like any concrete discussions have been made between them. The Oscar winner is a busy man, currently promoting his upcoming movie C’mon C’mon, an A24 film from Beginners filmmaker Mike Mills. C’mon C’mon is a black and white movie about a radio journalist who embarks on a trip with his young nephew, and it’s already receiving critical acclaim ahead of its November release.
The actor is also currently filming a mysterious movie with Midsommar filmmaker Ari Aster called Disappointment Blvd. about a successful entrepreneur’s life over multiple decades. Todd Phillips, on the other hand, is getting ready to make his Hulk Hogan biopic with Chris Hemsworth. After Joker received 11 Oscar nominations and two wins, the collaborators were understandably busy. And Joker wasn’t ever necessarily going to be a franchise, it being a contained story was sort of the point.
That being said, it doesn’t sound like Joaquin Phoenix is completely against the idea. Maybe down the line, Todd Phillips will return to the ideas they had on set of the first film and get working on a second film. We’d certainly be curious how a Joker sequel could expand the ideas of the first movie as the DCEU continues to build on its own.
