When “Joker” came out, it was a breath of fresh air for the superhero genre. First off, it wasn’t really a superhero film in the first place. Take away the Gotham setting, Papa Wayne, and the clown makeup and you have yourself a Scorsesian crime thriller in the vein of “Taxi Driver.” Or, maybe a dark comedy like “King of Comedy.” It was a hybrid of the two, but “Joker’s” derivative nature did little to lessen its impact.
A commercial and critical hit, “Joker” would garner Joaquin Phoenix his first Oscar win of his long and storied career. While that’s great and all, the real reason a sequel is even being spoken of for this film is because of the billion (yes that’s B for billion) dollar global box office numbers “Joker” brought in back in 2019. For an R-rated, relatively low budget film, that’s making money hand over fist and then winning the lottery afterwards. The movie made a lot of money, so it should be only a matter of time for a sequel.
Well, in 2019 it was that Todd Phillips was in negotiations with Warner Bros. to make a second “Joker” film with Joaquin Phoenix. While there’s little doubt Todd Phillips would be returning for a sequel, Joaquin Phoenix is a bit more of a wild card. Thankfully, the actor isn’t opposed to returning to the iconic role. It did get him an Oscar after all.
In an interview with the Playlist, Joaquin Phoenix said, “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.”
He said he’d do it and that’s all that really matters for now. “Joker” had a largely fluid script that was influenced by many of the crew, including Joaquin himself. If they get the whole gang back together and have them watch a couple more Scorsese films while there at it, we may finally get “Joker 2.”
