Joaquin Phoenix's Clown Prince of Crime could return to the big screen sometime in the near future, with one report claiming that production is moving forward on a sequel to 2019's Joker.
Phoenix will supposedly reprise his role as the criminal comedian Arthur Fleck/Joker in the upcoming sequel alongside returning co-writer and director Todd Phillips. Warner Bros. has reportedly received the first draft of the film's script, according to an industry insider via Heroic Hollywood, with the studio set to begin shooting the sequel sometime in 2023. Further details regarding plot information as well as other new and returning characters are currently being kept tightly under wraps.
Rumblings of a Joker sequel began back in May 2021 after a report suggested Phillips would co-write the script. Doubt was cast on the sequel's existence in October of that same year when Phoenix gave an uncertain answer when asked about the likelihood of a Joker 2. "I dunno," the actor said. "From when we were shooting, we started to -- you know, uhh, this is an interesting guy. There are some things we could do with this guy and could [explore] further. But as to whether we actually will? I don't know."
Alternatively, some fans began speculating that Matt Reeves' upcoming film, The Batman, is actually the Joker sequel they've been waiting for. Not only are both films set outside the DC Extended Cinematic Universe but they also depict a similarly broken Gotham City. As such, it seems likely that The Batman will be a spiritual successor of sorts to Joker, with Reeves appearing to take a similar character-driven approach to the Caped Crusader as Phillips did with Batman's archnemesis.
Actor Willem Dafoe, who reprised his role as Green Goblin in Spider-Man: No Way Home, recently pitched his idea for a Joker sequel, in which Dafoe plays an imposter Joker opposite to Phoenix's. "So it would be possible to have not dueling Jokers but someone that says to be the Joker that isn't the Joker," Dafoe explained. "And that kind of opens up the possibility of an interesting story, particularly if you had Joaquin Phoenix's Joker, and then you had someone who was either imitating or riffing off what he did."
Phoenix became the fifth actor to portray the Clown Prince of Crime on the big-screen when Joker was released, joining previous incarnations of the character played by Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger and Jarod Leto. In fact, critics ranked every live-action version of the character, with Phoenix's Joker coming in just below Ledger's performance in 2008's The Dark Knight and Nicholson in 1989's Batman.
Joker is now available on DVD, Blu-ray, 4K UHD and Digital.
Source: Heroic Hollywood