Since the announcement of Joker 2 officially happening dropped earlier this year, the Joaquin Phoenix sequel has been teasing a wild ride in writer/director Todd Phillips’ return to Gotham. One of the most sensational rumors was linked to the possible casting of Lady Gaga as Dr. Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn in what is apparently going to be a musical follow-up. Brace yourselves, because Gaga herself has confirmed she will be in the upcoming DC movie Joker: Folie à Deux, which means I now have so many questions that need to be answered.
How Lady Gaga Announced Her Joker 2 Role And Why It’s Important
The way that Lady Gaga broke her involvement in Joker 2 feels like a brief teaser trailer for the film itself. Posting a cryptic, yet playful video on Twitter, we see images of both Gaga’s character and Joaquin Phoenix’s returning protagonist Arthur Fleck. With the on-brand usage of the song “Cheek to Cheek,” here’s how Lady Gaga broke the news.
Joker: Folie à Deux10.04.24 pic.twitter.com/obp7T9lBFLAugust 4, 2022
A short, but sweet video, it definitely borders on the creepy fantasy world that Joker played around with in its 2019 box office record breaker. However, if you look closely enough, there seem to be some clues that answer one of the potential questions that have been brought up. Naturally, in the world of this DC supervillain, that means more inquiries need to be made, and Lady Gaga has definitely made that happen.
The Questions Joker: Follie à Deux’s Announcement Has Brought Forward
Quite possibly the easiest question that’s asked and answered by Joker 2’s big reveal is whether or not Lady Gaga will be playing Harley Quinn. It would appear that the answer is, indeed, yes. At least, that’s what it looks like thanks to the clues in this video.
The overall color scheme of Harley’s red and black arrangement is the entire template for this look at Joker: Follie à Deux; but that’s not all. The screenshot shown below seems to be the smoking gun in confirming Gaga’s role:
Who dresses in red and black, with a heart tattoo on their face? Harley Freakin’ Quinn, my friends; and it’s a detail that’s stared us all in the face since Todd Phillips revealed the cover and title to the script. Joker: Follie à Deux roughly translates to “folly of two,” which is clearly a cute title that only built the foundation further out for this fan-favorite character to make her debut in this gritty, period piece follow-up.
This brings us to our next question: now that we know Lady Gaga is in Joker 2, could this also be a confirmation that the film will be a musical as rumored? The musical choice, and the image of Joaquin Phoenix appearing to dance with Gaga would seem to suggest that this rumor is getting closer to reality. In which case, that sweet BossLogic fan art mashup gets some points for doubling down on what such a reality could look like.
Joker: Follie à Deux’s atmosphere is starting to look like something similar to what we saw in the trailer for the X prequel movie Pearl. Mixing brutality with song and dance, this DC thriller rumored to be set in Arkham Asylum (per The Wrap) could even be the story of how Mr. J and his right-hand lady met up for the first time, leaving the two to spiral into madness ever after.
Though that does leave room for one final Joker 2 question. Should Batman actually make his way into this film, as many have hoped and prayed he would, does this mean he could do the Batusi for the first time on the big screen since the Adam West era? Just how weird is this movie going to get?
Those answers and more will have to wait. Joker: Folie à Deux is set to dance, and maybe even sing, its way into theaters on its newly-revealed release date of October 4, 2024. So if you're hoping for clues on any of the questions we've asked above, and you happen to be an HBO Max subscriber, you might want to revisit Joker in its current streaming home.
