Todd Phillips confirms plans to leave ‘Joker’ behind after latest movie
The highly anticipated, long-awaited sequel to 2019’s Joker, Joker: Folie à Deux, is finally here. With the film’s release comes the announcement that director Todd Phillips will be leaving the character behind and bringing his work dabbling with supervillains to a close.
The sequel takes place shortly after Arthur Fleck’s arrest in the original movie. While incarcerated at Arkham State Hospital, he meets the love of his life, Harley Quinn, played by Lady Gaga. Phillips has confirmed that he was nervous about presenting the role to Gaga but that she was on board quickly and excited to step into it.
“I think we sent her half the script, and she texted me pretty quickly that she was really into it, that she loved it and everything you want to hear,” he said to The Hollywood Reporter, “And then I went out to her house, and we met about what it was going to be, the rest of it, because we hadn’t written it yet. [Co-writer] Scott Silver and I are notoriously slow writers.”
Phillips has previously confirmed that he has no interest in working on a third Joker movie. “It was fun to play in this sort of sandbox for two movies,” he said last month, “But I think we’ve said what we wanted to say in this world.”
Phillips has also since confirmed that he has no interest in making a standalone Harley Quinn movie with Lady Gaga. “It’s not really where this movie is headed for me,” he said, “I feel like my time in the DC Universe was these two films.”
What film will Todd Phillips work on next?
Todd Phillips’ next film was set to be a biopic about the wrestler Hulk Hogan. Phillips was in talks with Netflix about the biopic, and the streaming platform already confirmed that Chris Hemsworth would be starring in the film; however, it now looks like this will no longer happen.
“I love what we were trying to do,” said Phillips, discussing the film, “But that’s not going to come together for me.”
Although Phillips has confirmed that though he has no intention of making a third Joker movie, he would be interested in working with Joaquin Phoenix again. He said he would like to make a comedy with Phoenix, saying he is “So loose and funny.”
“I think people really want comedies right now,” he said, “The trailer for Joker 2 sort of sums things up when it says, ‘What the world needs now is love’. But I would go farther: We could use a good laugh too.”
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