Todd Phillips says there will unlikely be a third Joker film. In an interview with Variety, the filmmaker says he feels like the story has now been told and he is ready to wrap up his Joker universe when Joker: Folie à Deux releases later this year.
Phillips says that during the release of the 2019 Joker film, he had already been thinking of a follow-up. However, the follow-up wasn’t going to be a movie. Instead, it was planned as a Broadway musical. The musical was inspired by a dream that Joker actor Joaquin Phoenix had shortly after shooting the first film.
Phoenix described this dream as seeing Arthur Fleck on stage performing while telling jokes and singing. When he approached Phillips with the idea, it sounded great on paper. It was almost set in stone but the four-year planning period behind a Broadway musical was soon put on ice when COVID hit.
Phillips didn’t let that stop him from building Joker: Folie à Deux as a musical. He says the idea of Arthur Fleck as a singer and someone who could express himself with music stayed with him throughout the pandemic. He wanted to do the film because it also scared him. The risk of taking such a drastic move away from the original kept him awake at night.
“Why do something if it doesn’t scare the shit out of you? I’m addicted to risk. I mean, it keeps you up at night. It makes your hair fall out. But it’s the sweat that keeps you going.”
As a result, Joker: Folie à Deux was officially greenlit and is about to premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Sadly, it will be the last story Phillips tells about his Joker. The filmmaker says the story has been told and there’s no more life he can get out of the current universe. This is Joker’s final tale.
Joker: Folie à Deux will be released in cinemas worldwide on 4 October. Watch the official trailer below:
Source: Variety
