If you heard a cacophony of deafening chirps after finishing your dinner Tuesday night, don’t worry: This ain’t Hitchcock and you don’t have to worry about ravens and crows and all other sorts of fowl breaking into your home and turning you into a walking and talking bird feeder. Those cries were actually the tweets of the Twitter flock, aghast at Todd Phillips’ tenacity for spoiling their evenings after he took to the ‘gram to announce that, yes, Joker 2 is happening. The script is apparently finished, based on its nice red front page, Joaquin Phoenix is reading it (and he’s pictured in the post looking like a boss with a cigarette perched between his lips as he flips through the pages), and it has a title: Joker: Folie à Deux. Solid pun, Todd.
Here’s the post in question, presented via screenshot because Instagram embeds are a waking nightmare:
And here’s Phoenix:
See? The dude’s cool as hell. Meanwhile, IGN had a copy of the DSM-5 handy:
“While plot details are scarce, Folie à Deux is defined as a psychological disorder where the same or similar mental disorder affects two or more people. Given that the Joker is known for having psychologically dependent relationships with characters like Batman and Harley Quinn, this title seems fitting.”
Similarly to IGN, we’re thinking this might have something to do with Batman. We can hear the “No, duh,” coming from each of you right now, but it’s more likely than Harley Quinn, given that the last film directly concerned our boy Bruce watching his parents get gunned down for something like the 80th time on screen. But who knows? Not us.
Anyway, no word on when Joker: Folie à Deux will actually start shooting or even if it’ll make it out of the development phase, but we’re hopeful. Maybe the cultural temperature has cooled enough for people not to make a moral panic out of a comic book movie. Maybe people will just judge this on its merits and refrain from hysterical hyperbole for the sake of clicks and likes.
Nah, who the hell are we kidding? Get ready, folks.