So it turns out Joker 2 isn’t in the works, after all? On Wednesday, The Hollywood Reporter published an article alleging that Todd Phillips had taken a meeting with Warner Bros., and emerged with not only a deal for a sequel to Joker, but the rights to one other DC character’s origin story. (We reported on it here.) Today, the director himself debunked the rumors, telling IndieWire no such meeting ever happened.
The director added that he had pitched “a whole label” of gritty character studies based on comic book characters when he first pitched Joker, but was quickly shut down by executives. He also said that while a Joker sequel isn’t necessarily out of the question, it’s all just talk so far.
“Here’s the real truth about a sequel,” Phillips told IndieWire. “While Joaquin and I have talked about it, and while touring the world with Warner Bros executives—going to Toronto, and Venice, and other places—of course, we’re sitting at dinner and they’re saying, ‘So, have you thought about…?’ But, talking about contracts, there’s not a contract for us to even write a sequel, we’ve never approached Joaquin to be in a sequel. Will that happen? Again, I just think the article was anticipatory at best.”
So that’s that. We do, however, still want a Poison Ivy origin story in the style of Joker. Dr. Pamela Isley’s only live-action portrayal so far has been Uma Thurman in Batman & Robin, and while her campy performance was utter perfection, it would be interesting to see what would happen if her successor were to dial up the angst (and also everything wasn’t in neon). Until then, it looks like the closest thing we’re getting is Little Joe. We mean…
(Right? Check out the full trailer.)
