Joker currently sits at $995M worldwide, just shy of crossing the $1B mark and becoming the first R-rated film to do so. It's crazy to think this movie that nobody was very sure about a year ago could cross into being the most profitable comic book movie ever, and yet here we are. And of course, Warner Bros. wants to do a sequel because, well, obviously. But director Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix haven't really been open to it unless it's for something special, and in a new LA Times piece both talk about what that might be...
“In the second or third week of shooting, I was like, ‘Todd, can you start working on a sequel? There’s way too much to explore,’” Phoenix said. “It was kind of in jest — but not really.”
“But it couldn’t just be this wild and crazy movie about the ‘Clown Prince of Crime,’” said Phillips. “It would have to have some thematic resonance in a similar way that this does.”
It would be VERY tough for a Joker sequel to have the same impact. We would no longer be seeing the transformation of a regular joe into one of comics' most notorious villains. The social commentary that is so much a part of the film wouldn't resonate the same way, either...
Phillips continued, “Because I think that’s ultimately why the movie connected, it’s what’s going on underneath. So many movies are about the spark, and this is about the powder. If you could capture that again in a real way, that would be interesting.”
No matter what these guys say, I'm sure Warner Bros. will find a way to make this happen, and they'll connect it to Matt Reeves' The Batman, too. Just a hunch.
