It’s safe to say Warner Bros. are pleased with Joker. Despite their initial misgivings about the project, going so far as to limit its budget in an attempt to dissuade the creators, it’s gone on to wild success. How wild? Well, not much more needs to be said other than that it’s the first R-rated movie to ever break $1 billion at the box office. Based on that alone, there will be sequels. But some recent reports have poured cold water on the idea, with Deadline claiming that “there’s currently no deal” for a follow-up.
However, The Hollywood Reporter – who broke the news of a sequel – is standing by their story and our own sources tell us that while ink may not yet have hit paper, plans are indeed afoot for another Joker. And if that does well (and it almost certainly would), then we’re told Warner Bros. might go for the full trilogy. And given that this intel comes to us from the same sources who told us a Joker sequel was happening a month before THR broke the news, we have no reason to doubt it.
But what could a Joker trilogy look like? Well, my bet is that all the seeds planted about the Waynes will bear fruit and the next two films will be about the character’s ongoing relationship with Batman.
This new Jokerverse is somewhat unique in that the Dark Knight and Joker are from different generations: Bruce Wayne’s about 10 years old and Arthur Fleck is 35. As such, a Joker sequel may see a young and inexperienced Batman on the streets causing more trouble than he solves, with Arthur either escaping or being released from Arkham Asylum along the way. A second sequel may then bring us closer to the modern day, with an experienced adult Batman tangling with an older Joker out for one last hurrah.
I get that this is essentially fan fiction, but Batman and the Clown Prince of Crime are famously two sides of the same coin. Having established the character so well in Joker, it’d be fascinating to see how he deals with a competing symbol of societal change in Gotham. The important thing here is to keep the focus on Arthur Fleck though, and seeing a more sympathetic Mr. J dealing with a billionaire violently assaulting the poor could be fascinating stuff.
