Joker: Folie à Deux is a corporate rebrand. The first film was a decidedly straight male phenomenon with Scorsese’s King of Comedy vibes and a full-on Oscar win for Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of the titular deranged villain. Its upcoming sequel, on the other hand, treads down different steps. Folie à Deux will be a musical fantasia starring pop icon Lady Gaga opposite Phoenix’s Joker. (We can be certain, though, that the second movie is gunning for awards just like its predecessor.) Little is known about the actual plot of the film, aside from the fact that its version of Harley Quinn and Arthur Fleck falling in love at Gotham City’s Arkham Asylum earned an “R rating.” Just the kind of Clockwork Orange nonsense to make Gaga feel right at home. Below, everything you need to know about director Todd Phillips’s DC Universe superhero sing-along Joker: Folie à Deux.
What happens in the new trailer?
Harley Quinn meets the Joker, to the soundtrack of “What the World Needs Now (Is Love Sweet Love).” We see Lady Gaga applying a red lip to both herself and Joaquin Phoenix as they sing and dance through the trailer, at one point giving La La Land vibes on a roof in front of a Hotel Arkham sign. When the Joker ends up behind bars, that doesn’t stop Harley Quinn from kissing him — or remaining committed to her role as makeup artist. “I wanna see the real you,” she says, applying lipstick over the glass so that he can slip into his signature smile.
Is Joker 2 really going to be a musical … ?
Joker (Jacques Demy’s Version) Folie à Deux will, in fact, be a musical. And it might have even more music than you expected. On March 22, Variety reported that the movie leans toward being “mostly a jukebox musical” — to the tune of at least 15 covers of “very well-known songs,” including “That’s Entertainment.” Insiders said one or two original songs might also make the final soundtrack. Ominous reports of a musical sequel first emerged in August 2022, when an insider told Variety that the sequel has “complicated musical sequences” that are more in line with A Star Is Born than In the Heights.
Leaked on-set footage appeared to confirm the threat of show tunes. The videos were taken in New York on March 31, 2023 and show Lady Gaga performing a rendition of “A Couple of Swells,” the Fred Astair and Judy Garland duet from the 1948 musical Easter Parade. Phoenix was not filmed singing, but it’s only a matter of time before we see him doing jazz squares down the Joker steps.
The film’s composer, Hildur Guðnadóttir, thinks the musical route makes sense for Folie à Deux. “It’s an interesting decision,” she told Variety on January 15, 2023. “I think it’s somehow logical at the same time. It’s both logical and also very surprising for me as well as the audience. So far, it’s just been a really beautiful conversation, and I’m really excited to see how it unfolds.” Guðnadóttir doesn’t really dive into the “why?” of it all, but perhaps they didn’t want to waste Gaga’s classically trained voice or the opportunity to make a film even more inescapable than its predecessor.
Where are they filming Joker 2?
Filming began in Los Angeles in December 2022. Beyond first looks released through the sequel’s official social-media channels and Gaga’s Twitter, we didn’t get a taste of the actual locations until March, when diehards began to share every known filming location on the internet. Fans spotted Phoenix as Arthur Fleck and an unidentified actor also dressed as the Joker running through the streets of downtown L.A. The leading man wore a dusty-gray suit complete with smudged clown makeup and fake blood on his ear. His co-star (or body double, perhaps?) managed to keep his clown makeup pristine, though the same can’t be said for his dirty red suit and yellow vest.
Additional filming locations leaked after the production went cross-country (i.e., to New York and New Jersey). Folie à Deux filmed the Arkham Asylum scenes at the shuttered Essex County Isolation Hospital. Much of the film is said to be centered around the Joker and Harley Quinn’s meeting at the asylum, making the New Jersey location pivotal. Additional scenes were filmed outside the same courthouse where Donald Trump was arraigned in New York City (lol) and the so-called Joker stairs in the Bronx. Production reportedly wrapped on April 4, 2023.
Why is Lady Gaga playing Harley Quinn over Margot Robbie?
Creative freedom? Todd Phillips is a Little Monster? The delicious promise of a Lady Gaga press tour? Mostly, it’s because Robbie’s Quinn exists in the DCEU, led by Josh Safran and James Gunn, which doesn’t include the Joker films or Matthew Reeves’s The Batman. Either way, Robbie gave Gaga her blessing in October 2022. “It makes me so happy because I said from the very beginning that all I want is for Harley Quinn to be one of those characters — the way Macbeth or Batman always gets passed from great actor to great actor,” she said in an interview with MTV News. “Someone gets to do their Batman, or someone gets to do their Macbeth.” Ah, yes, the opportunity to play the timeless Shakespearean role that is Harley Quinn. We are seeing herstory in action, folks.
And what does Gaga Quinn look like?
It’s a fair question — over the course of her starring film roles (A Star Is Born, House of Gucci, now this), Gaga’s acting has become increasingly mannered. With a comic-book musical about mental illness leading to cartoonish evil, she’s got the Oscars vehicle to match. Whether or not she wins any awards for “best” acting remains to be seen, but we feel confident that she can make a play for any awards that ask for “most” acting. The poster for the film, released on April 2, shows Gaga as Harley being dipped by Phoenix’s Joker with his makeup smeared on her face like they’d just had a fierce make-out session. “The world is a stage,” reads the film’s tagline. Expect L. Gaga to be quoting Shakespeare for the entire press tour.
On Valentine’s Day 2024, Phillips shared three pics from the film, which included Gaga with the widest eyes known to man alongside Phoenix in full glam, a pic of the two waltzing, and the most Gaga pic of all: the two actors with their noses pressed together. Yes, that does mean we’re getting nose content in this film, even if the noses aren’t commented on. We just wanna take another look at her. To quote a musical Gaga is not starring in: Thank goodness.
What does “folie à deux” mean?
It’s French for starring Lady Gaga a delusion or mental illness shared by two people. We’re not going to spell it out, but the title makes sense considering what we know about the plot of the movie.
When will Joker: Folie à Deux hit theaters?
The film bursts into song on October 4, 2024. The inevitable sing-along version has not yet received a release date.
This post has been updated.
