Fans of the DC Comics universe must be pretty excited at the moment, as not only have we been showing all the past Batman films at Cineworld as part of the Batman 85 anniversary celebrations – look out for The Dark Knight on 21 September – but the long-awaited follow-up to the 2019 movie Joker is due to hit cinemas on 4 October.
Joker: Folie à Deux sees Todd Phillips return to the director’s chair, with Joaquin Phoenix reprising his role as the failed-comedian-turned-supervillain. Set two years after its predecessor, the film catches up with Arthur Fleck / Joker as he serves time in Arkham State Hospital for murdering TV host Murray Franklin and inciting riots across Gotham City. When troubled music therapist Harleen ‘Lee’ Quinzel (Lady Gaga) turns up at the hospital, the two social outcasts find themselves falling in love, igniting a twisted romance that has devastating consequences for the people around them.
1. It doesn’t have any superheroes in it
If you saw the first Joker, you’ll know that it was an origin story, detailing Arthur Fleck’s transition from a frustrated stand-up comedian into a homicidal maniac and hero to the downtrodden. As for superheroes, there weren’t any in it – unless you count a young Bruce Wayne, who was briefly seen communicating with Fleck through the gates of his parents’ mansion. And there are no caped crusaders in this film either – not entirely surprising when you think that it’s set just two years after the first instalment, meaning Bruce Wayne would still be a kid. To make up for the lack of superheroes, though, there are no fewer than three ‘baddies’ in Joker: Folie à Deux, with Harley Quinn and Harvey Dent – aka ‘Two Face’ – appearing alongside the titular villain.
2. It’s basically a musical… or is it?
One thing you don’t normally get in comic-book movies is songs, but in Joker: Folie à Deux there are lots, as Arthur Fleck and Lee Quinn bond over their mutual love of music. Despite this, Lady Gaga denied that the movie is a musical. “I think the way that we approached music in this film was very special and extremely nuanced,” she said at a press conference for the Venice Film Festival. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that this is actually a musical; in a lot of ways, it’s very different. The way that music is used is to really give the characters a way to express what they mean to say because the scene and just the dialogue is not enough.”
3. There are multiple Jokers in it
If Arthur Fleck’s manic laughter and creepy facial expressions made you feel uneasy in the first film, then you’d better prepare yourself for what’s to come in Joker: Folie à Deux – multiple versions of the Clown Prince! Yes, this isn't something we've seen in any of the Batman movies, but it definitely happens here – we know this because a leaked video from the film’s set showed Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) running away from two other Jokers, including one that was wearing his iconic purple suit from the first film. What does it all mean? Whether it’s Fleck hallucinating or encountering versions of himself from the DC multiverse, we’ll have to wait and see!
4. This Joker isn’t a criminal mastermind
In the Batman films, Joker is seen as a scheming supervillain hellbent on creating mayhem for Gotham and its residents. That wasn’t how he was portrayed in the original Joker film, though, with Joaquin Phoenix’s character being more of a lonely misfit who’s driven to murder by what he perceives as society’s ill treatment towards him. And he isn’t transformed into some kind of evil genius this time around, either. “We would never do that,” director Todd Phillips told Empire. “Because Arthur clearly is not a criminal mastermind. He was never that. Arthur has become this symbol to people. This unwilling, unwitting symbol now paying for the crimes of the first film, but at the same time finding the only thing he ever wanted, which was love. That’s always what he’s been about, even though he’s been pushed and pulled in all these directions. So we tried to just make the most pure version of that.”
5. It wasn’t only made because the first film did so well
Comic-book sequels are often made because previous films in the franchise did so well at the box office – but that genuinely wasn’t the case with Joker: Folie à Deux. Yes, the original Joker was a massive hit, grossing around $1 billion worldwide, but according to Todd Phillips, a second film had always been on the cards, regardless of how the first one did. “Joaquin and I talked about another one the whole time while we were making the first movie, just because we love the character,” he told Empire. “We were obsessed with Arthur. We would almost joke about it: ‘Oh, we should take Arthur and we should do this.’”
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