Lady Gaga will bring some bad romance to ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’

So, in case you haven’t paid attention to the wonderful wide world of wacky film news this past week — and let’s be real, most of you have lives and aren’t hanging on to every last word about what a particular studio is up to at any given moment — you might have missed the whole kerfuffle surrounding Warner Bros. and their upcoming slate of releases. Well, the streaming ones, at least. Warner Brothers Discovery is currently gutting HBO Max. They’ve canceled the release of Batgirl and the sequel to Scoob, both of which were bound for the platform, removed a whole host of original titles off of the service (all of which are still available on VOD, of course), and have hinted that they’re going to pare down the streaming division’s output, provided that it’s scripted content and not some sort of baking show. Why? And how the hell does this relate to Joker: Folie à Deux?

Well, Warner Bros wants its movies to be big events: They’re running up against the streaming wall, which is that spending a ton of money on scripted content, film or television or otherwise, isn’t going to fly in a world where everyone has a dozen different streaming services each competing for their attention with shiny new products that will inevitably lose out to another Office marathon. Seeing the example that Top Gun: Maverick provided — people will go back to the theater, especially for “event” movies — they’ve done a complete turn-around from their pandemic-era strategy. Gone are the same-day theatrical releases on HBO Max — all that remains is a shortened theatrical window. This is the route a lot of media companies are taking, and even Apple is getting in on the fun with Killers of the Flower Moon, which will get a legit release sometime next year.

That means films like Joker 2 are safe, because you’ve got star power and hype: Hell, on Thursday, Lady Gaga announced she’d be taking a co-lead role in the sequel alongside Joaquin Phoenix. But if you’re not already successful or able to be punted over to HBO, good luck getting that pickup or renewal. The content gods have spoken, and your passion project isn’t a good loss-leader anymore.

Here’s Gaga’s tweet announcing the news, with a short teaser video attached:

As seen above, Joker: Folie à Deux will release on October 10, 2024. Will HBO Max still be around then? Will the Batgirl movie be saved by some sort of fan campaign? Who knows.