For the sequel, Phillips will be returning to the director’s chair and has co-written the script with Scott Silver, with whom he collaborated on Joker. The Hollywood Reporter’s sources added that it will be a musical and that Gaga will play Harley Quinn, Joker’s baseball bat-wielding partner in crime, embodied by Margot Robbie in Suicide Squad opposite Jared Leto’s menacing clown. Joining her will be Zazie Beetz as Sophie Dumond, our titular anti-hero’s former neighbor from the first film, as well as Catherine Keener and Brendan Gleeson in undisclosed roles, with some of the new release taking place in and around Arkham Asylum, where the story left off. A release date was announced, too: October 4, 2024. On February 14, 2023, a first still followed, showing Gaga and Phoenix staring into each other’s eyes.
Is that blood on their faces or paint? Is the title Joker: Folie à Deux a nod to a condition the titular anti-hero shares with Harley Quinn, or one he shared with his troubled mother Penny, as played by Frances Conroy in Joker? Will other DC superheroes appear in the new film, or will the story be grounded in reality as its predecessor was? These are just some of the questions that have yet to be answered, but either way, with Gaga’s involvement, expect the costumes to be just as dazzling as the music.