Whether you loved it or hated it, one thing that was unarguably refreshing about Joker was how it felt so standalone and uninterested in becoming the launchpad of its own mini-DC universe. But then it made a billion dollars, so of course Warner Bros. cajoled director Todd Phillips and star Joaquin Phoenix into making a sequel. The duo looked to have struck clown gold twice over, though, when we learned Joker: Folie à Deux was set to be a demented musical co-starring Lady Gaga!
Tragically, now that the follow-up is finally here, it’s turning out not to be the film we were promised. Stepping aside from that controversial ending for a moment (no spoilers to be found herein, have no fear), it’s become clear that the movie Warner Bros. advertised in the trailers is not the one that’s been put in theaters. The biggest difference? Gaga is in the 2-hour, 18-minute feature far less than expected, with several key moments from the trailers missing from the final cut.
Joker 2 is Justice League all over again as DC diehards and Little Monsters alike demand a “Gaga Cut”
Despite Gaga basically carrying the hype for this movie on her back thanks to her turn as Lee aka Harley Quinn, it turns out that she is nowhere near the prominent presence in the story that we had been led to believe. And you know what DC fans do when they smell the whiff of some deleted scenes? Cue the #ReleaseThe[INSERT NAME HERE] campaign!
YouTuber Grace Randolph’s review is gaining steam among bitter fans for going so far as to describe Gaga’s contribution to Joker 2 as a “small supporting role” that appears to have been “whittled down” in the editing room. Randolph opines that “the film has clearly been altered from what the original intention was.”
One of the biggest sticking points for Folie à Deux disparagers is that the marketing campaign’s most instantly iconic moment — Arthur Fleck and Lee leg-kicking their way out of a courthouse, surrounded by a crowd of press and the public — is nowhere to be found in the finished film.
Now, scenes from trailers getting axed from the final cut is a story as old as film, but it’s rare for a scene that’s become “the literal money shot” — the moment that’s captured on posters and is being used to hook people in off the street — to be junked in this way. Especially as this is such a direct and effective homage to the Joker Stairs scene from the original.
God bless the Little Monsters for taking set videos and photos, so we at least have some record of all Gaga’s erased material.
There’s only one thing left to say… Release the Gaga cut!
We had hoped that poor theatrical cuts of DC movies would be a thing of the past under the shiny new era of DC Studios, as headed up by James Gunn and Peter Safran, but apparently not. The small consolation is that Gunn and Safran didn’t have as much involvement or oversight on Folie à Deux as they will future mainstream DC flicks, so they really can’t be blamed for however disappointing it turned out to be. Or, to put it in Gaga terms, how shallow.