Lady Gaga in Talks to Join Joaquin Phoenix in ‘Joker 2’ Musical

The Joker is back and this time he’s bringing along a friend.

Lady Gaga is in early talks to star opposite Joaquin Phoenix in director Todd Phillips’ sequel to Joker, the 2019 Oscar-winning, $1 billion Warner Bros. hit based on the DC character.

Phillips has been co-writing the script with Joker co-writer Scott Silver for some time and has finally shown it to the studio. Last week, Phillips revealed on social media the title of the new project — Joker: Folie a deux — the title referencing a medical term for an identical or similar mental disorder that affects two or more individuals, usually members of the same family. And while the same social media post showed Phoenix reading the script, the actor’s involvement is not exactly a legal fait accompli just yet — sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Warners has yet to close a deal with the actor, with the two sides deep into it.

Enter Gaga.

Details about her character are being kept secret, but Joker is well-known for his abusive relationship with Harley Quinn (his psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum), who falls in love and becomes his sidekick. It is not clear if Phillips and his crew are using other DC characters, or striking on their own as they did with their first movie.

If a deal is reached, Gaga would portray Quinn. However, this new Quinn exists in a different DC universe than Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, who most recently appeared in 2021’s The Suicide Squad as well as several other films.

But that’s not all: Sources claim the sequel is also musical.

When Warners first made Joker, it was far from a sure thing. A dark and moody character piece, the project was a Taxi Driver-meets-King of Comedy descent into madness set in a late 1970s decaying city. Commercial prospects were deemed nominal, and it was only budgeted at $60 million.

By the time it was released in October 2019, Joker was riding a wave of adulation from the fall film festivals, which helped propel the movie into a record-breaking opening weekend, with box office analysts changing their prediction every day. It was the No. It was the fourth highest-grossing R rated movie. It then earned 11 Oscar nominations, including best picture, and won best actor (for Phoenix) and best score (for Hildur Guonadottir).

Phillips previously produced A Star Is Born, the 2018 remake that starred Joker producer Bradley Cooper and Gaga.

This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.

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