Joker 2: Todd Phillips Says Movie Is Not a Musical

The director says Joker 2 is something different.

Joker: Folie A Deux  Director Todd Phillips says that the movie isn't a musical. Now, by most accounts, the Joker sequel would fulfill most of the qualities of a musical. But Phillips had more to say with Variety. In essence, the filmmaker argues that most of the musical action happens in between Arthur Fleck's ears and then branches out to the rest of the world. That would explain why people aren't just spontaneously just breaking into song in most of the action fans have seen so far. However, plenty of viewers online are responding to these comments with a measure of sarcasm, because of the presence of multiple musicals that behave like this. (In The Heights fans especially are going to want to see this for themselves.) Check out what he had to say.

Phillips argued, "I just don't want people to think that it's like In The Heights, where the lady in the Bodega starts to sing and they take it out onto the street, and the police are dancing. No disrespect, because I loved In The Heights."

"We asked ourselves what would need to be true for two people to just break into song in the middle of a conversation?," Gaga added. "Where does the music come from when no one can hear it but the characters? Neither Arthur nor Lee are professional singers, and they shouldn't sound like they are."

Will There Be A Joker 3?

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Will we see them again?

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With all of this focus on Joker: Folie A Deux, Some fans might be wondering if we'll get a third installment in this franchise. During the same interview, Todd Phillips had some bad news for anybody expecting to get Joker 3. He said, "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." That seems pretty definitive. But, in an ever-changing media landscape, nothing is really gone forever. However after two movies, the filmmaker thinks that it's time to close the curtain on Arthur Fleck and his new love interest. After all, there's still that comedy to make withJoaquin Phoenix.

"I'd love to keep working with Joaquin, but on a comedy, because he can be so loose and funny," Phillips says. "And I think people really want comedies right now. The trailer for 'Joker 2' sort of sums things up when it says, 'What the world needs now is love.' But I would go farther: We could use a good laugh too."

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