Joker: Folie à Deux’s star-studded cast, exciting premise, and doubled budget from its predecessor all point towards a truly promising release.

Joker told the origin story of the Clown Prince of Crime, and it was so successful that the standalone movie is now getting a sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux. The 2019 movie follows Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a clown-for-hire who has a dream of becoming a great stand-up comedian. Arthur is constantly bullied and gets the short end of the stick when it comes to Gotham’s economy, leading him down a murderous path that influences a whole movement and transforms him into the Clown Prince of Crime by the time of the Joker movie ending.

Despite Joker being a controversial movie for its divisive exploration of the topic of mental health, it was also a huge award winner. Phoenix won the Academy Award for Best Actor and Hildur Guðnadóttir won for Best Original Score. This is on top of the movie making $1 billion at the worldwide box office (via Box Office Mojo) on a budget of just $55 million. With the star-studded Joker: Folie à Deux cast – and some other exciting reveals that have been released about the movie along the way – it seems Warner Bros. could easily repeat that success.

Joker 2 Latest News

The Joker 2 trailer released on April 9, 2024, following a teaser the prior week about its unveiling. While certain story elements are still entertainingly mysterious, the trailer shed more light on what the movie will look like, providing a first proper look at Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker and Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn together on-screen.

Joker 2 Trailer

The Joker: Folie à Deux trailer appears to confirm that a good portion of the sequel will take place in Arkham, following directly on from the end of the original film. The preview shows Arthur Fleck meeting Gaga’s Harley Quinn while in confinement, though notably adapts this part of their comic origin story to instead have Quinn be another patient in the facility, instead of Joker’s therapist, as is traditionally part of their backstory.

However, the trailer also appears to suggest the pair escape, as the sequence of Fleck being chased by two other people in Joker makeup is notably in Gotham city. That said, it does also appear that the musical sequences of the film will reflect a split from reality, which means anything is possible in terms of what actually unfolds in Joker 2.

Joker 2 Release Date

It will have been five years since Joker was released when the sequel hits movie theaters, as Joker 2 is set for 2024’s awards season. Joker 2 will be released on October 4, 2024, and it’s hardly surprising that Warner Bros. wants to release the sequel at that time of year, as the original movie was such a huge awards contender. The release date is good news for the movie’s quality, as it means that the studio has a lot of faith in the sequel and that it could be another big winner at the 2024/2025 awards ceremonies.

Writer/director Todd Phillips completed the script in 2022, and the movie’s development and production were fast-tracked. Joker: Folie à Deux is reportedly over double the budget of Joker, as the production cost is apparently a huge $150 million.

Joker 2 Cast

With Joker being led by Phoenix, the sequel obviously wouldn’t work without him returning. Phoenix will reprise his role as the Clown Prince of Crime, and he isn’t the only returning cast member of the original movie, as Zazie Beetz will be returning as Sophie Drummond too (via Deadline).

Sophie was portrayed as somewhat of a love interest of Arthur’s, though it was revealed that their romance was all in Arthur’s head, and she was only a neighbor to him in real life. It was unclear if Sophie survived in Joker, but a deleted scene reveals that she survived, suggesting that her scenes in the sequel won’t just be flashbacks.

Phoenix and Beetz are joined by a new and promising supporting cast. In the movie, Lady Gaga will play Harley Quinn, the Arkham Asylum doctor with whom the Joker has a relationship. Though it isn’t clear how closely the sequel will follow the source material, Lady Gaga’s role is a major one.

The other major actor joining the cast is Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges, The Banshees of Inisherin), but his role is undisclosed. Several other actors have been cast in as yet undisclosed roles too. Jacob Lofland (The Son) has joined the cast, as has Catherine Keener (Being John Malkovich) and Harry Lawtey (The Pale Blue Eye) (via Deadline).

Joker 2 Plot Details

It isn’t clear whether Joker: Folie à Deux takes place years after Joker’s final scene where Arthur murders the Arkham Asylum employee or just minutes. As the first movie ends with Arthur running from Arkham Asylum orderlies after he murdered a doctor, it’s obvious that Arthur didn’t manage to escape based on some specific Joker: Folie à Deux plot details.

Similarly, the trailer and preview images don’t show him to have aged, meaning there likely isn’t a time jump in the film. Either way, it has been revealed that much of the sequel is set in Arkham – with the Joker 2 trailer underlining that this will definitively be the case.

The most talked about element of Joker: Folie à Deux is its drastic tonal change, as the Joker sequel will be a musical. It makes especial sense why Lady Gaga was cast as Harley Quinn with this in mind, as not only has the pop star become a great actor, but she’s an incredible performer too.

Gaga is ultimately the key to Phillips pulling off the musical element, which has always been a bold choice. As most of the movie will be set in Arkham, it’s likely that the musical elements will be in Arthur’s head, just like how his relationship with Sophie was in his head in the first movie. That could especially be the case given that the movie’s subtitle translates to “madness for two,” which is a shared delusional disorder.

While Joker 2’s musical approach is divisive, it could be a welcome change following the dour and depressing tone of the first movie, and it could be a clever and creative way of doing so. On top of that, the Joker has generally always been theatrical and musical, so this radical shift is rather in keeping with the iconic character. The Arkham setting also opens up a lot of possibilities and opportunities too, as it could potentially introduce other villains in Batman’s rogues’ gallery.

Other Joker 2 Details

Guðnadóttir delivered an unconventional and hauntingly beautiful stripped-back score for the 2019 movie, which won her an Oscar, and the composer will return to score Joker 2. But her approach will undoubtedly be a lot different for the sequel.

Given that Joker: Folie à Deux will be at least partly a musical, Guðnadóttir has to compose music with lyrical content too. However, having composed music for other suspenseful and dramatic movies like Sicario, The Revenant, and Tár, it’s unlikely that the sequel will stray too far from her intense cello work.