Joker: Folie a Deux Director Reveals If Harvey Dent Will Become Two-Face

While Joker: Folie a Deux features the villainous duo of Joker and Harley Quinn, there’s another member of Batman’s rogues gallery that makes an appearance. The sequel to 2019’s surprise hit Joker is a musical feature that brings back Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, aka The Joker, who is joined by recording artist Lady Gaga as Harleen “Lee” Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn. Todd Phillips is behind the camera once again to direct Joker 2, and together with screenwriter Scott Silver they are answering some of the movie’s burning questions, such as the likelihood that fans will see Harvey Dent transformed into his Gotham crime lord Two-Face.

Joker: Folie a Deux director Todd Phillips and screenwriter Scott Silver spoke to the press before Joker 2‘s premiere at the Venice Film Festival next week. The duo were asked why they included Harvey Dent, played by Harry Lawtey, in Joker: Folie a Deux.

“We respect the comics. We get the comics. In Harley’s case, we watched the animated series. Of course, Margot Robbie is Harley Quinn. But when we run things through this film — Harvey Dent is a perfect example,” Todd Phillips told IGN. “It’s actually a simpler way of talking about what we did with Harley, which was really just put the real-world lens on it, and not that other movies didn’t, but just run it through our Gotham. And so really, the Harvey Dent you meet in here [played by Harry Lawtey] is not a huge part, but if you’re going to have a trial, why wouldn’t you have the Assistant DA prosecuting Arthur Fleck be Harvey Dent? But it’s not about his – we don’t really reveal his dark side. We see a young Harvey Dent.”

Joker: Folie a Deux team rewrote scenes on paper napkins before shooting

Another tidbit revealed by the stars and creatives behind Joker: Folie a Deux is how Todd Phillips, Joaquin Phoenix, and Lady Gaga constantly worked on the script, so much that they were rewriting scenes on napkins before the cameras started rolling.

According to Gaga, the trio would “often” do major rewrites while on set. While Phillips is a little less broad about it, he does admit there was a lot of rewrites — sometimes being done hastily on a napkin when it’s all that was at hand.

“We’d very often meet in Joaquin’s trailer and sometimes we would just tear the script up and start all over,” Gaga told Vogue. “It was a really cool, liberating process.” 

“My line about Joaquin is that he’s the tunnel at the end of the light,” Phillips added. “You think, Okay, this scene works, let’s just go shoot it. And Joaquin’s like, ‘No, no, no, let’s just have a quick meeting about it,’ and it’s three hours later and you’re rewriting it on a napkin. What’s great about Lady Gaga is that she really holds her own both off camera when we’re in the trailer tearing things apart — which she probably spent the night before learning — but also on camera. It was not a small feat.”

What is Joker: Folie a Deux about?

Joker: Folie à Deux will be a musical that follows the twisted romance between Arthur Fleck and Harley Quinn, with a lot of the film believed to be taking place within Arkham Asylum. Directed by Todd Phillips, Joker: Folie à Deux will also feature appearances from Zazie Beetz, Brendon Gleeson, Catherine Keener, and Jacob Lofland.

Joker: Folie à Deux arrives in theaters on October 4th.