As far as comic book movies go, Zazie Beetz has built up quite the enviable record.
In the past two years, she’s starred in both Deadpool 2 and the billion-dollar oddity that is Joker (talk about a one-two punch!), the latter of which cemented its place in the history books as the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time.
That’s quite the feat, given Joker‘s minute $60 million production budget. So it should come as no surprise that Warner Bros. and director Todd Phillips are actively exploring the possibility of a sequel, one which would welcome the Oscar-winning Joaquin Phoenix back as Arthur Fleck.
He’s the demented and deranged anchor point of Joker, and a truly unreliable protagonist – story-wise, at least – given his tendency to slip into full-blown fantasies, one of which involves Zazie Beetz’s Sophie. Could we see that strained connection be explored in the inevitable sequel? Not so fast.
At last night’s Oscars ceremony in Hollywood, MTV News spoke to Beetz herself about the meteoric success of Joker, at which point she cooled talk of a sequel. Even going so far as to suggest that we don’t really need one, as the movie works just fine as a standalone story.
Ah, I don’t know. I don’t know if it needs one. I think there is a lot of strength in not milking something. Honestly, I feel like Todd would bee the person to be able to do that tastefully I think if he felt it needed one. I really trust him. He’s really creative and smart – so sure!
Truth be told, it’s hard to argue with Beetz’s perspective, but then again, this is a Warner Bros. in need of a financial hit, particularly after a string of box office bombs (see: Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The Lego Movie 2 and the recently-released Birds of Prey spinoff), so it’s really a question of when, rather than if, we’ll see a Joker follow-up.