People are going gaga over the fact that music icon Lady Gaga just confirmed that she’s going to be playing the Joker’s former psychiatrist turned sidekick, Harley Quinn in the Joker sequel.
The film has been titled Joker: Folie à Deux and when translated from French is “madness for two” and refers to a shared delusional disorder.
Fans on Twitter reacted to post by saying:
“OMGGG EVERYONE JUMPED”
“OMG THIS IS TOO ICONIC”
“I CAN’T QUEEN OF HOLLYWOOD”
Some users even claim to have found Lady Gaga’s audition for the role.
For those who are confused why Margot Robbie isn’t portraying the character, Todd Phillips’ Joker is set in a separate universe from the DCEU. The same reason why Joaquin Phoenix did not portray the Joker in The Batman’s post credits scene.
Director Todd Phillips announced the sequel back in June and shared a photo of Joaquin Phoenix reading his script as we can just make out the words “PHOENIX” on the paper.
Joker 2 will be a musical
Set for a release on October 4, 2024, the film is also supposed to be a musical according to The Hollywood Reporter’s sources and given Lady Gaga’s involvement, it does look appear to be heading in that direction. In Gaga’s Twitter post, the song ‘Cheek to Cheek’ can be heard in background which was covered by Lady Gaga and Tony Bennet back in 2014.
Lady Gaga’s creative influence
It hasn’t been confirmed if Lady Gaga will be writing any original songs for the film but it’s almost certain that we’re going to see her singing and dancing with the Joker. Either way, audiences will be listening to the sound of madness.
Lady Gaga is known for her eccentric outfits such as her famous meat dress as well as creative music videos which are likely to have an influence on the film.
Being that the Joker and Harley Quinn are known to have an on and off relationship, Gaga’s song “Bad Romance” would be well suited for a scene.
Assuming the film shows flashbacks of Gaga as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, the Joker’s psychiatrist in Arkham Asylum, it’s likely that the second she makes eye contact with him, she’ll start to sing the words:
Gaga oh-la-la,
Want your bad romance,
To create his version of the Joker’s maniacal laugh, Joaquin Phoenix watched videos of “people suffering from pathological laughter”. Gaga should base her Harley Quinn’s laugh on the lyrics in Bad Romance where it goes “Rah, rah-ah-ah-ah” when they have their laugh off.
If either of these things doesn’t happen, it’ll be a wasted opportunity.
Lady Gaga‘s first acting role was in 2018’s remake of A Star is Born which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Her most recent film was 2021’s House of Gucci which funnily enough starred a different Joker, Jared Leto as well as Jeremy Irons who plays Batman’s butler, Alfred Pennyworth in the DCEU movies.
Joaquin Phoenix won a slew of awards for his portrayal of the Joker in the first film, including a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Actor. The film itself earned over $1 billion at the box office and won the Best Original Score award at the Academy Awards and secured 11 nominations overall, breaking the record for a comic based film previously held by The Dark Knight which had earned eight, no joke.
Besides the film now including Lady Gaga and being a musical, no other information has been given as to what the story of Joker: Folie á Deux will be. What we do know is that it will be the first ever musical based on a comic book movie.