Joaquin Phoenix is returning to centre stage for his portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime in a sequel to 2019’s critically acclaimed Joker. Director Todd Phillips revealed the news in an Instagram post, who’ll likely be returning to direct the sequel. The first image shows the script cover, confirming that Phillips will be teaming up again with his co-writer Scott Silver for the sequel.
In addition, the working title is revealed to be Joker: Folie à Deux. The title itself prompts room for speculation as to what the plot will entail as when translated from French to English, folie à deux means madness for two. Furthermore, folie à deux is a shared psychosis or delusion that is experienced by two people, normally close family members, who essentially experience the condition at the same time.
This is interesting in the context of Joker and the Batman universe as a whole as there are various characters the Joker has some form of a dysfunctional relationship with – from Harley Quinn to Batman himself. However, we can only speculate on how this might play into the sequel.
The second image shows Phoenix who is presumably reading the script and therefore officially confirms his return for Joker 2. That being said, the Instagram post itself currently has no caption, so there are no further details to spill at this stage.
Joker was widely praised for its visuals, score, tone, the origin story of the mysterious arch-nemesis of Batman, and for Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of the villain which earned him an Oscar for Best Actor at the 92nd Academy Awards. Phoenix’s win made him the second actor to win an Oscar for their portrayal of the Joker following Heath Ledger’s posthumous win in 2009 for The Dark Knight.
Craving more DC content? Check out FlickLuster’s review of The Batman, which has also recently had a sequel confirmed.
