Last weekend, Jared Leto got in on the jokey Morbius meme action: He posted a video of him reading the script for a sequel to the two-time comic book movie bomb, complete with a patently absurd title. Jump a few days and there’s what appears to be a serious version of the same thing, featuring another onscreen version of the Batman baddie.
In an Instagram post, director Todd Phillips showed two pictures: one of a bound script for the sequel to Joker, followed by a pic of star Joaquin Phoenix presumably reading it, sunglasses on, cigarette in his mouth. There’s even a working title (which could wind up being the official title, unless social media hates it): Joker: Folie à Deux.
That subtitle might be a clue to what Phillips and returning co-writer Scott Silver have in store. A folie à deux means a delusion shared by two people. Think about couples who lose it together, or even lovers on the lam, like Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Could the follow-up to Joker find Phoenix’s mentally ill failed stand-up teaming up with someone he meets in prison? Maybe going on some kind of spree? Who knows! We don’t have access to the script as Joaquin Phoenix does!
Phillips’ post got a lot of attention, including from Simon Rex, the old MTV VJ given a mighty career renaissance after his singular turn in last year’s Red Rocket. “I zoomed in on the script and I see my cameo you wrote me,” he wrote in the comments. “Thanks man. I’ll see if I’m avail.”
Even after Joker made over a billion dollars worldwide in 2019, it wasn’t clear if it would get a sequel. Wayne family connection aside, it felt relatively self-contained, not hob-nobbing much with other parts of the DCEU. (Meanwhile, Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader now has his own wing of the universe, independent of the Justice League-ers.) Both Phoenix and Phillips seemed to be on the fence about a sequel until they decided to go ahead. And now here we are, with a script and a fancy title.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)