Todd Phillips has spoken about those rumors of a Joker sequel, and it seems that those reports may have been a bit premature.
On Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter ran a story that not only was Todd Phillips going to work on the script for Joker 2, but there were bigger plans. Reportedly he had a meeting with Warner Bros. about giving other characters the same treatment and had been approved for one.
Shortly after the initial report, Deadline came out with its own report and said that all of the information was incorrect. It said that no sequel was moving forward yet, and that no other films were planned.
Now, IndieWire was able to speak to Phillips directly to get some clarity.
“I can honestly say to you there was no meeting that ever happened on October 7 where I marched in,” Phillips told IndieWire. “First of all, if you know me and my career, that’s not my style. I made a huge comedy at Warner Bros., ‘The Hangover,’ and I didn’t suddenly become a comedy factory producer, like, oh, let’s just churn out movies. Bradley [Cooper] and I have a production company at Warners. I’ve been at Warners for 15, 16 years. We have two things in development at all times, not 40 things like some people. I’m not the kind of guy who goes marching in saying I want these 40 titles. I just don’t have the energy.”
Joker Sequel Status
As to whether or not a Joker sequel is happening, not quite yet would be the appropriate answer.
“Well, a movie doesn’t make a billion dollars and they don’t talk about a sequel,” said Phillips. “Joaquin [Phoenix] and I have publicly said we’ve been talking about a sequel since week two of shooting because it’s a fun thing to talk about. But the [THR] article was referring to other things than that that were just frankly untrue. I don’t know how it gets started, if it’s some assistant trying to gain street cred with a writer.”
“Here’s the real truth about a sequel,” Phillips said. “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.”
What brought about the report from the Hollywood Reporter? It’s anyone’s guess at this point, but it does appear that nothing is moving forward at this time.
SOURCE: IndieWire
