‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Previews Romantic Musical Starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga
Todd Phillips has never hidden the romantic aspect of Joker: Folie à Deux, from the multiple images posted on two consecutive Valentine’s Days to the very early concept art of Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) and Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga) dancing that was released as filming was to start in the summer of 2022. But now, the first trailer puts it over the top, unveiling the gorgeous romantic musical that will premiere in theaters this fall.
Check out the trailer here, which premiered at WB’s CinemaCon panel on Tuesday:
Phillips was in the room in Las Vegas to present the trailer, five years after he was last there to introduce the first Joker. According to Deadline, Phillips was set scheduled to attend and open the 2020 edition of CinemaCon, which was eventually canceled due to the pandemic. Phillips was apparently thankful that the exhibitors decided to screen Joker regardless of the online narrative that included threats of violence that started to surround the movie around a month before its release:
“About a month before the film came out in 2019, the narrative turned and there started to be bizarre warnings; it was amazing that exhibitors didn’t flinch. That attitude was a huge reason for our success. It’s a little late now but I wanted to thank you.”
The sequel wasn’t put into motion immediately after the first movie opened, in part because the studio had always proclaimed it would be a stand-alone adventure, and had set up the contracts with the actors and filmmakers that way. But a billion dollars later, they changed their tune and there was suddenly a deep interest in getting a sequel off and running. Phillips eventually confirmed it was happening two years ago when he dropped an image of the script cover on Instagram, and THR followed up by saying Lady Gaga was playing Harley Quinn.
Phillips said at the convention that the idea for a sequel was always kind of there when making the first movie, especially since Joaquin Phoenix and him were having such a great time:
“When we were making the first movie Joaquin and I always talked about making a sequel really because we were having a great time but we were never really serious.
Then when ‘Joker’ became a huge success we talked about it during the pandemic and decided to do it and we had a blast doing it. We cast Gaga because she’s magic. I was a producer on ‘A Star is Born’ and that was where I was like she has magic in her.”
The trailer includes multiple visual references to Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, one of the most successful musicals at the box office of the past decade (aside from Wonka). The movie has been described as a jukebox musical in the media, though Phillips rejects that idea, saying that the concept of music as part of Arthur Fleck’s persona has always been there. Now, it’s just coming out more than ever before:
“I’ve never talked about it as a musical, but it’s a movie where music is an essential element. The first ways I described Arthur were as weird and aloof and distant, but he has music in him, he has a grace to him. That informed him a lot in the first film. It didn’t seem like that big of a step what we did here.”
Joker: Folie à Deux opens in theaters on October 4.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
