Last week we heard that Joaquin Phoenix will be reprising his Oscar-winning role for ‘Joker 2’, which is great news considering his unreal performance in the original.
The question is – where do you go with a Joker sequel? What can Joker even do at this point that he hasn’t done a bunch of times already in every other movie he’s shown up in?
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the answer to that is simple: a musical. Lady Gaga is reportedly set to star too, having been involved in talks to play Harley Quinn opposite Joaquin. Todd Phillips has been co-writing the script with Scott Silver for some time and shown it to the studio under the title ‘Joker: Folie à deux’ – a reference to a medical term for an identical or similar mental disorder that affects two or more individuals, usually members of the same family.
So yeah, typical Hollywood. Take something awesome that everyone loved and make it into something terrible that everyone hates by a) making it a musical and b) putting Lady Gaga in it. Then again, who knows? Todd Phillips and co took a gamble by doing something different with the original and it paid off massively, so maybe a Joker musical wouldn’t be so bad either. In fact the more I think about it, the idea of a deranged, maniacal Joker prancing around in a sick and twisted musical could be very interesting. They could actually do some cool and terrifying things with it.
As for Lady Gaga playing Harley Quinn, I’m not so convinced. Mainly because it’s a role in a movie that requires topnotch acting. Nobody was worried about Joaquin Phoenix playing Joker because we all know he’s an elite-level actor. Then again, it’s not like Margot Robbie was particularly great as Quinn so maybe there’s a lower bar for Gaga to reach there.
In the meantime, I cannot wait to see Joaquin as Napoleon in the next Ridley Scott epic. Potentially another Oscar in the bag right there.
