In 2019 the DC supervillain spin-off movie, Joker, made box office history, and now it looks like a sequel written by director Todd Phillips may be on the way. According to a report from THR, Phillips is officially signed on to work with Warner Bros on Joker 2, bringing back everyone’s favourite Gotham baddie, and hopefully, more dancing Joaquin Phoenix.
After Joker’s success among critics, and during awards season, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Warner Bros would want another instalment of Arthur Fleck’s story. The film currently holds the highest box office of any R rated film to date, so financially, it makes sense for the studio to approach Phillips in hopes of a sequel. Talk of Joker 2 has been circulating since December 2019, when both Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix expressed their willingness to return to the clown crime lord’s story once again.
However, despite conflicting reports over the last 18 months or so, news of Phillips’ purported return to Joker didn’t come from himself or Warner Bros, but instead came to light via The Hollywood Reporter.
In its most powerful lawyers in Hollywood piece, the publication confirmed that Philips is co-writing the “next Joker installment.” However, it is yet to be confirmed, if Scott Silver, original Joker co-writer, and writer of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, will be joining him.
Joker showed the classic DC villain in a way never done before in live-action. Instead of a maniacal nihilistic clown, it decided to explore the character through the lens of mental health and trauma. Originally, it was pitched as a stand-alone film, coming across as the modern supervillain version of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.
The end of Joker teased an exciting connection between Fleck and the Wayne family that could be expanded on in Joker 2, but that’s just speculation. Between this and Robert Pattison’s The Batman movie, it seems like we won’t be short of any Gotham-centred entertainment in the near future.