“Joker: Pas de Deux” continues the story of failed comedian and clown actor Arthur Fleck as he becomes the Joker, but the sequel won’t see Arthur become a true crime clown. Writer-director Todd Phillips told Empire, “We would never do that.”
“Because Arthur is clearly not a criminal mastermind. He never was,” Phillips said. “Arthur has become a symbol for people. This reluctant, unknowing symbol now pays the price for the crimes of the first film, but at the same time finds the only thing he wants, and that’s love. That’s what he’s always been. Pursuit, even though he was pushed in all these directions, so we tried to make the purest version of that.
This is a marked departure from the approach taken in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, in which Heath Ledger played the Joker as a criminal mastermind.
Phillips went on to discuss the musical elements of Joker: Folie A Deux, saying that Arthur was not a singer per se, but grew up listening to the music his mother played on the radio. So, in the sequel, it was actor Joaquin Phoenix’s job to make Arthur sing like someone in the shower alone. Phoenix stars in the film alongside Lady Gaga as Harley “Lee” Quinzel, and Phoenix said he was blown away by her talent.
“Gaga was always very encouraging to us, ‘Just go with your feelings, it’s okay,'” Phoenix said. “For people who don’t perform in this way, doing it can be…uncomfortable, but also very exciting.”
Joker: Folie A Deux will be released in theaters this October, and the latest trailer can be seen above. In addition to Phoenix and Gaga, the sequel also stars Zazie Beetz and adds Oscar-nominated actors Catherine Keener, Brendan Gleeson and Stevie Steve Coogan.
