The original Joker movie wasn't initially envisioned as a movie that would get a sequel. But since it grossed $1.079 billion worldwide, a sequel was inevitable. Joker: Folie à Deux hits theaters later this year, but if Joaquin Phoenix and director Todd Phillips had followed their initial instincts, the Joker sequel could have made it to Broadway.
In an interview with Variety, Phoenix recalled a vivid dream he had while filming the original movie. In his vision, he saw himself as Arthur Fleck, fully made up as the Joker, entertaining a packed theater by telling jokes and singing.
“I woke up feeling elated and called [Phillips]hoping he would want to do a show with me,” Phoenix said. Phillips was up for the idea, but the logistics of putting on a production like that prevented it from becoming a reality.
“When we started thinking about it seriously, we realized it takes four years to put together a project like this,” Phillips said. “And was Joaquin really going to dedicate six months of his life to doing this every night on stage? So we thought about doing it at the Carlyle, as a sort of smaller project. But then COVID happened.”
Regardless, the initial idea behind the Broadway show led to Joker: Folie à Deux, in which the main character Phoenix dances and sings with Harley Quinn, played by Lady Gaga, instead of doing the usual Joker things like fighting Batman. But before deciding to introduce Harley, they considered introducing “a female Joker, who could serve as a dance partner in a kind of psychotic tango.” Instead, Phillips says they went with a more realistic version of Harley.
“The high-pitched voice, the accent, the gum-chewing, all that sassy stuff that you find in the comics, we took that out,” Phillips noted. “We wanted her to fit into the world of Gotham that we created from the first movie.”
Phillips recently praised Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy after Deadpool & Wolverine surpassed Joker to become the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. However, Joker: Folie à Deux will have a chance to reclaim that record when it hits theaters on October 4.