[Editor’s note: The following story contains spoilers for “Joker: Folie à Deux,” including its ending.]
Yes, “Joker: Folie à Deux” is a mess. Yes, it is a lackluster follow-up to 2019’s “Joker” that made history as the first R-rated movie ever to gross over $1 billion worldwide. Let’s just say that Joaquin Phoenix definitely won’t be winning a Best Actor Oscar for this sequel.
But, what “Joker: Folie à Deux” does do is position itself as a so-baffling-it’s-amazing soon-to-be cult classic (“Grease 2,” anyone?). And this also might not be the last of this particular “Joker” universe created by director and co-writer Todd Phillips, as the film serves a trio of origin stories for other villains, for better or for worse.
Sure, Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck is dead, but as we soon learn, he never really was THE Joker after all. Arthur is an empathic, mentally ill character who became a larger-than-life symbol, so much so that he couldn’t even have a close relationship without his darker side (AKA Arthur’s Joker) being prized over who he really was.
Let’s dive into the possibilities of a third “Joker” film, and unpack what the title “Folie à Deux” really means.
Crazy in Love? Or Just a Fan?
The musical components of the film begin with the animated featurette that precedes “Joker: Folie à Deux,” during which the audience is introduced to the concept of split personalities by way of “Me and My Shadow.” There is the Joker and there is Arthur, and only one can be conscious at a time.
Yet the duality motif is later stretched to seemingly encompass Harleen “Lee” Quinzel (Lady Gaga), who also resides at Arkham State Hospital. Lee isn’t quite a femme fatale, and she certainly doesn’t mirror Arthur’s mental state, either. It turns out Lee went to grad school for psychiatry, checked herself in to Arkham, and basically was obsessed with the Joker…or at least his notoriety and fame. Throw in one made up backstory rife with trauma, plus a jail cell sex scene (that weirdly paralleled Gaga and Adam Driver’s intimate moment in “House of Gucci”), and voila, Arthur is in love.
But even with all of Lee and Arthur’s harmonies, she can’t be his titular folie à deux. The French term refers to an identical or similar mental disorder affecting two or more individuals, usually members of a close family, and it seems that Arthur and Joker are those two. Lee is faking, or at least she’s faking with Arthur. Would she like the other Joker instead?
Which brings us to the three Jokers onscreen: Arthur, Joker, and…that inmate who actually is THE Joker, the one who is a psychopathic (his own self-diagnosis) criminal mastermind.
Meet the Real Joker
The duality and duplicity of “Joker: Folie à Deux” continues with that twist ending: As Arthur is told he has a visitor after being found guilty of five murders, he is shanked by a fellow, nameless Arkham inmate (Connor Storrie). That “Young Inmate,” as the character is billed in the credits, is the actual Joker that pre-teen Bruce Wayne will face off against in later years. Audiences caught a glimpse of child Bruce in the first film; Arthur was also teased to be his half-brother as his mother worked as a maid at the Wayne manor.
“Joker: Folie à Deux” is actually the second half of a two-part origin story for the real Joker, as played by Storrie. “Young Inmate” stabs Arthur and then uses the same blade to cut a smile into his face, maniacally laughing while carving up his cheeks. This sequence, as shot in the background, brings the razor-blade backstory for the character to life; that was the theory presented for how the Joker got his scars in Tim Burton’s “Batman” and Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight.”
This newly revealed Joker, played by Storrie, is reminiscent of Barry Keoghan’s reveal as the Joker in Matt Reeves’ “The Batman.” While Reeves’ franchise, now also with TV series “The Penguin,” exists outside of “Joker: Folie à Deux,” both hint at future installments in the respective stories. While “The Batman 2” has already been greenlit with Matt Reeves returning to direct, Keoghan hasn’t yet been asked to reprise his role of Joker. Keoghan did tell GQ UK he wants to return, though.
As for Gaga’s Lee in “Joker: Folie à Deux,” would she fully embrace her Harley Quinn canon status with Storrie’s Joker instead, given that she only “loved” the idea of the Joker and not Arthur himself? She was two-faced in that way….
Harry Lawtey Is Two-Face, But What Does That Mean?
Among the many “why is this happening” questions provoked by “Joker: Folie à Deux,” the biggest would be about the unnecessary inclusion of Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey), who prosecutes Phoenix’s Arthur for murder. When Arthur is found guilty, the courthouse is attacked by a car bomb, leaving half of Harvey’s face burned.
There is no character development for Harvey at all outside of his status of being an assistant district attorney. Canonically, Harvey becomes villain Two-Face in the comics; the character was most recently played by Aaron Eckhart in “The Dark Knight.”
So why cast “Industry” breakout Lawtey in a role that tees up a trilogy, if there won’t be another feature?
We know that writer/director Phillips is exiting stage left, along with Phoenix, but the musical “Joker: Folie à Deux” could continue its path aside from Arthur and still be parallel to “The Batman” Warner Bros. Discovery tentpole.
“Joker 3”?
Phillips has maintained that Arthur is not “the clown prince of crime or running a syndicate of criminals,” as he told Variety ahead of the film’s release. As “Joker: Folie à Deux” tells audiences again and again, it’s all entertainment for entertainment’s sake, and nothing real matters.
“It’s all been corrupted,” Phillips said. “Look at the recent presidential debate: There’s a countdown clock and these gladiatorial graphics. Or take the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial. Everything is just treated as entertainment now, and there’s something sad and troubling about that.”
He continued, “The goal of this movie is to make it feel like it was made by crazy people. The inmates are running the asylum.”
Does that flippant-ness apply to respecting the IP? Why have Easter eggs if they don’t lead anywhere?
“It was fun to play in this sort of sandbox for two movies, but I think we’ve said what we wanted to say in this world,” Phillips said.
He later told The Hollywood Reporter that a third film is “not really where this movie is headed for me. I feel like my time in the DC Universe was these two films.”
That doesn’t mean that Gaga, Lawtey, and Storrie’s respective contributions to the DCU are done, though. It could just be a coda for the next verse in the “Joker: Folie à Trois” world.
Read the IndieWire review for “Joker: Folie à Deux” here.
