Is Joker 2 actually a musical? (original) (raw)
Joker 2 is undeniably one of the most anticipated movies of 2024. With Marvel releasing just a single film this year in the shape of Deadpool and Wolverine, the stage is set for Joker: Folie à Deux to dominate the superhero world in the second half of 2024.
But one question hangs over the film in the wake of its first run of trailers: is Joker 2 a musical? All involved appear to be playing a little coy with the matter of genre and the preview footage isn't entirely clear as to just how much of a song-and-dance spectacular Joaquin Phoenix's new movie really is.
So let's pick through everything we've heard in interviews and previews to try to work out whether Joker 2 is actually The Greatest Showman of the superhero world. Or perhaps Les Misérables would be a more apt comparison.
Joker 2 was rumoured to be a musical from the start
Joaquin Phoenix is back as Arthur Fleck for Joker: Folie à Deux. (Warner Bros.)
Todd Phillips announced Joker: Folie à Deux with an Instagram post in June 2022. That same month, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Lady Gaga was in talks to play Harley Quinn in the movie. That article also suggested that the film was going to be a musical, making the most of Gaga's famous pipes and the drawl Phoenix used as Johnny Cash in biopic Walk the Line.
The film's returning composer Hildur Guðnadóttir — who won an Oscar for her work last time around — added more fuel to the musical rumours in September 2023, when she told ComicBook.com: "All I can say is there is going to be a lot of music. That's all I can give away."
Variety carried a report from "insiders" in March 2024 claiming that Joker 2 was "mostly a jukebox musical", featuring at least 15 well-known songs. That article also suggested that there was potentially room for original songs too. Everything seemed lined up for this to be a pure musical.
Joker and Harley Quinn dance in the teaser trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux. (Warner Bros Pictures)
Then, director Todd Phillips poured an enormous bucket of cold water over the whole thing. In an April 2024 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Phillips said: "We never really talked about it like that [as a musical], but I like to say it's a film where music is an essential element. To me, that doesn't veer too far from the first film."
The director added that "Arthur is weird and aloof, but he has music in him". This sounds like a prime way for someone to talk about the fact they've made a musical without admitting to it.
Read more: Lady Gaga Says ‘Joker 2’ Singing Is an ‘Extension of the Dialogue’ and ‘Unlike Anything I’ve Ever Done’ (Variety)
Joker 2 has the trappings of a musical
The mystery deepened when the first teaser trailer for Joker 2 arrived online in April. The teaser had plenty of musicality in it, including multiple fantasy-inflected dance sequences involving Joker and Harley. But it wasn't clear if the stars themselves would actually be bursting into song.
Watch: Teaser trailer for Joker: Folie À Deux
We've since seen another trailer for the film and it teases the musical elements even further, without ever fully committing. We hear Arthur Fleck singing the classic track When You're Smiling and he appears to croon along to it while looking up at a TV screen in prison.
In the final scene of the trailer, Gaga and Phoenix sing a tentative duet of the song Get Happy, made famous by Judy Garland. These moments point to exactly what Phillips suggested — a film infused with music, but falling short of being a conventional musical.
In August, Variety revealed that Arthur (Phoenix) and Lee (Gaga) break into songs including For Once in My Life and That’s Life as a way to convey their 'shifting emotions'. Sounds a lot like a musical, but Todd Phillips himself seemed a bit less sure telling the publication: "Most of the music in the movie is really just dialogue. It’s just Arthur not having the words to say what he wants to say, so he sings them instead."
His reticence to call it a musical seems to be about managing expectations for fans, with the director adding that he didn't want people to "think that it's like In The Heights".
What has Lady Gaga said about Joker 2?
Talking at Venice Film Festival, where Folie A Deux had its global premiere, Lady Gaga was emphatic in saying that the sequel is not a musical.
"I think the way we approach music in this film is very special and extremely nuanced. I wouldn't necessarily say that this is a musical. In a lot of ways it's very different," Gaga said. "The way the music is used is to give the characters a way to express what they need to say because the scene and dialogue is just not enough."
The cover of Lady Gaga's Joker-inspired album Harlequin. (Interscope Records)
To confuse things even more, Gaga announced Harlequin, a new soundtrack 'companion' album for the film featuring 13 songs, which was released on 27 September. It includes the cover songs recorded for the movie such as Get Happy, That's Entertainment, and That's Life.
Harlequin track listing
- Good Morning
- Get Happy (2024)
- Oh, When the Saints
- World on a String
- If My Friends Could See Me Now
- That’s Entertainment
- Smile
- The Joker
- Folie à Deux
- Gonna Build a Mountain
- Close to You
- Happy Mistake
- That’s Life
Why Joker 2 hasn't been advertised as a musical
It's fascinating that Joker 2 has embraced the sort of marketing that has become common with musicals, in which they appear to be ashamed of their genre. This criticism was recently applied to the likes of Wonka, The Color Purple, and Mean Girls — all of which were very clearly full-tilt musicals, but were not marketed as such in their trailers.
Watch: Full trailer for Joker: Folie À Deux
It feels pretty safe to say that Joker 2 is indeed a musical, however much Phillips wants to dance around the idea. Phoenix and Gaga are both capable singers and it seems like their characters will perform some songs together in the movie as part of some sort of TV spectacular — either real or the product of a shared delusion.
Read more: Why Are Studios Hiding the Fact That Their Musicals … Are Musicals? (The Wrap)
This is a very interesting shift from the more overtly gritty, grounded storytelling of the first Joker, which sought to strip the fantasy context from previous takes on the character. Phoenix and Phillips famously said they wouldn't do a Joker sequel unless they could come up with a different story to tell — and a musical would certainly fit the bill.
Given the fact the first Joker movie made $1.08bn (£840m) at the global box office, there's a very real chance that Joker: Folie À Deux becomes the highest-grossing musical of all time.
Joker: Folie À Deux is in UK cinemas from 4 October.