After a disastrous 2023 for the DC brand, Warner Bros. hopes to deliver at least one hit comic book movie this year with Joker: Folie à Deux before relaunching the franchise under DC Studios' watch with 2025's Superman.
2019's Joker grossed over $1 billion on a modest $55 million budget. However, with reports swirling that the sequel cost upwards of $200 million, the studio will surely be hoping it hasn't allowed filmmaker Todd Phillips to indulge too much with this follow-up. After all, musicals are a tough sell at the best of times and comic book adaptations have struggled greatly post-COVID.
While time will tell whether Joker: Folie à Deux can live up to its predecessor, a new look at the Clown Prince of Crime and Harley Quinn has been revealed courtesy of a t-shirt which has found its way into stores sooner than expected.
They both look very comic-accurate here and we're hopeful this is indicative of how they'll eventually appear in the movie itself. Either way, it's interesting that Warner Bros. appears to be leaning into how these characters are portrayed on the page to promote Joker: Folie à Deux.
"We never really talked about it like that, but I like to say it's a film where music is an essential element," Phillips previously said of his sequel being dubbed a musical. "To me, that doesn't veer too far from the first film. Arthur [Fleck]'s weird and aloof and all these things, but he has music in him. He has a grace to him."
"That informed a lot of the dancing in the first film. It didn't feel like that big of a step here. It's different, but I think it'll make sense when you see it."
"We cast Gaga because she's magic," the filmmaker added. "I was a producer on A Star Is Born. That was the first time I really met her and got to watch her work. As we were writing this script, Scott [Silver], who I wrote it with, kept going back to her."
Joker: Folie à Deux, which will fall under the "Elseworlds" banner and isn't part of DC Studios' new DCU, arrives in theaters on October 4, 2024, exactly five years after Joker debuted.
Check out this new promo art for the movie below and stay tuned for updates as we have them.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, we've learned that this is fan art!