He might have turned down the role of Doctor Strange, reportedly to avoid a multi-film commitment, but could Joaquin Phoenix’s staunch position on sequels change with Joker? His role playing the Clown Prince of Crime in Todd Phillips’ dark origin film, set firmly apart from the interconnected world of the DCEU, has been embraced by cinemagoers to the tune of over $850 million at the worldwide box office – a considerable haul that naturally has everyone asking what comes next.
Warning: Spoilers for Joker follow
While Joker was envisioned as a standalone piece of work, speaking to Empire in a Spoiler Special interview Phillips revealed there was talk during production of where a follow-up might take Arthur Fleck. “Joaquin and I would constantly talk about a sequel on set,” the filmmaker says though he adds: “We’ve never seriously discussed it and still haven’t, because we really always envisioned it as its own standalone thing.” While Phillips’ film tells a potential origin story for the iconic comic book character, even come the final act he’s not yet the fully-fledged schemer so often depicted on page and screen. “Is our character a criminal mastermind? He’s certainly not that yet in our movie,” says Phillips. “That’s exactly the kind of stuff we’d talk about, like, the next one could be about him becoming that, even without Batman.”
Phillips isn’t the only one to speculate about a potential future for Joaquin Phoenix’s take on Joker. In an interview with journalist Peter Travers, Phoenix himself suggested he might not be done with Arthur Fleck – despite the project being pitched as a one-off. “It ended up being a dream role,” the actor said. “I talked to Todd a lot about what else we might be able to do in general, just to work together, but also specifically, if there’s something else we can do with Joker that might be interesting.”
Quite what a follow-up to Joker would look like remains to be seen – Phillips’ film does intersect with the traditional Batman origin story, depicting the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne in the final act, but considering that Bruce Wayne is only a child during Joker the prospect of him facing off against Fleck seems improbable. Elsewhere, a new standalone Batman film is coming in 2021 directed by Matt Reeves, with Robert Pattinson in the titular role. Those two crossing paths seems equally unlikely – but with Joker clearly resonating with audiences worldwide, keep an eye out for any official announcements on Arthur Fleck’s cinematic future.
Listen to the full Todd Phillips interview in the Empire Podcast Joker Spoiler Special here – and available now on all good podcast apps.