Todd Phillips’ “Joker” was originally billed as a standalone DC origin story, a way to distance itself from the usual franchise storytelling of the MCU and DCEU, but now it looks as though Warner Bros. and Phillips could be scrapping those plans altogether and be ordering more Joker in the foreseeable future.
Phillips’ Joaquin Phoenix-starring origin picture hasn’t even been released yet, let alone had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, but, by the sounds of it, Phillips is so convinced that he’s hit a homerun with “Joker” that he’s not ruling out a sequel.
Speaking with Total Film, Phillips actually sounds pretty keen on the idea of “Joker 2”:
“One thing I will tell you: I would do anything with Joaquin, any day of the week,. There’s nobody like him. If he was willing to do it, and if people show up to this movie, and Warners came to us and said, ‘You know what? If you guys could think of something…’ Well, I have a feeling that he and I could think of something pretty cool.”
As mentioned, the fact that Phillips isn’t even opposed to the idea of a second Joker seems rather odd, considering how “Joker” has been depicted as an anti-comic book movie by almost everyone involved in production. However, one must look at its current box-office prospects — the movie is now projected to have a box-office opening weekend of $77 million (despite its R-rating) and, if reviews turn out to be great at the fall fests, that total could go much higher.
Duffield's "Whalefall," the survival thriller about a diver swallowed by a sperm whale, is heading toward a roughly $7M-ish opening weekend, according to the most recent Saturday update.