Lady Gaga Officially Confirms 'Joker: Folie à Deux' Role (Probably As Harley Quinn) In Viral Teaser
It’s been reported/speculated for a while that Lady Gaga would join Joaquin Phoenix in the sequel to the 2019 smash hit Joker, and Gaga herself has broken the news of her closed deal to co-star in Joker: Folie à Deux as of Thursday.
All signs point to Gaga playing the role of Harley Quinn, although as of now, that’s yet to be declared. However, given the relationship between Joker and Harley established across multiple other mediums and the content of today’s teaser, I think it’s pretty safe to assume Gaga is cast as one Dr. Harleen Quinzel, doomed to descend into madness amid a toxic relationship with Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck/Joker.
TheWrap reported that much of the 2024 film will take place in Arkham Asylum, and multiple outlets have indicated that the project will actually be a full-blown musical. A polarizing choice to be sure, but between Gaga’s prowess as a singer/songwriter/actor and Phoenix’s stunning turn as Johnny Cash in Walk the Line, I think this pair has more than enough chops to pull off whatever radical vision director Todd Phillips has cooked up this time around.
Phoenix won tons of major awards for his first outing as the Clown Prince of Crime, including the Best Actor Oscar. Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir won the Academy Award for Best Original Score. All told, Joker had 11 Oscar noms, and Phoenix has reportedly leveraged that into a $20 million salary for his first-ever sequel. I imagine Gaga is going to command a hefty payday as well. That alone should cause the budget to exceed Joker's estimated $55-$70 million. When you make well over a billion dollars at the box office, though, that’s of little concern.
In a sign of how strange the entertainment industry can be at times, the price tag for Joker: Folie à Deux will be pretty close to (or more than) the $90 million Warner Bros. Discovery shelled out for the new Batgirl movie that will now never see the light of day in theaters or via streaming platform HBO Max. Obviously Joker was a raging success and WBD believes lightning will strike twice here given what happened in 2019. I don’t blame them. Gaga’s presence and the intrigue around the Joker character should sell out theaters everywhere.
This really is one of the most highly anticipated sequels to any movie I can remember. The fact that Phillips, Phoenix and Gaga are teaming up for something wildly different than the first movie only adds to the excitement. We have a long wait before the film releases, but Deadline reports production is expected to begin in December.
Throwback to Phillips' incredible reveal of the script and Phoenix thumbing through the pages from a couple months ago…
Twitter @MattFitz_gerald