It looks like we may not have heard the last of Joaquin Phoenix‘s now-iconic laugh. A recent article from The Hollywood Reporter slyly confirmed that Warner Bros is still planning on developing a sequel to 2019’s Joker as part of it’s upcoming DC line-up. The film, which starred Phoenix as the psychotic clown everyone loves to hate, was originally billed as an experimental, one-off origin story. The project was meant to launch “DC Black”, a new line of darker, adult-oriented comic book movies based on characters from the DC Universe. However, a strong fan reaction to the film and a handful of Academy Award nominations led to director Todd Phillips hinting at a sequel, with Phoenix saying that he would be on board should the right story come his way. THR reported on a sequel entering development in November of 2019, but Phillips later clarified he’d merely had hypothetical conversations with Warner Bros, and no film was actually in production. Until today, no further news had dropped on the subject.
It’s unclear where a sequel to Joker would go, but the ending of the first film did leave some open threads for a future installment to play with. The last time we see Arthur Fleck, he’s escaping Arkham Asylum and leaving a bloody trail behind him. It’s possible that a second movie could capitalize on this by having Fleck fully embrace the Joker name. Phillips has also previously expressed interest in bringing Batman to the film’s version of Gotham City. In the chaos of Joker‘s third act, we see Bruce Wayne’s timeless origin story play out, so a time-jump featuring an older version of the character duking it out with Fleck may not be completely off the table. That is, assuming the world doesn’t already have enough Batmen.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
