New Joker: Folie à Deux Featurette Evaluates Joker and Harley's Shared Madness

Joker 2 tickets are now on sale.

By Cameron Bonomolo

Tom Jones crooned that what the world needs now is love, sweet love — and Joaquin Phoenix's Arthur Fleck finds it in Lady Gaga's Harley Quinn in Joker: Folie à Deux. With tickets now on sale (including advance screenings in IMAX), Warner Bros. has released a new teaser and behind-the-scenes featurette examining the mad love between Joker and Harley with director Todd Phillips and Oscar winners Phoenix and Gaga.

"In the first Joker, Arthur says, 'Is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there?' If you're watching it, you're going, 'It's not just you,'" Phillips says in the featurette (below). "And in this film, what the world needs now is love."

In the Joker sequel, Arthur is institutionalized at Arkham awaiting trial for his crimes as Joker (including the murder of Robert De Niro's television host Murray Franklin). While struggling with his dual identity, Arthur not only stumbles upon true love with Lee — but also finds the music that's always been inside him. 

As Arthur and Lee's folie à deux (madness for two) manifests in fantastical musical sequences inspired by classic golden age movie musicals, the Joker sequel transforms Arkham into a stage for Joker and Harley.

"This movie takes Lee and Arthur to another level," Gaga adds. "I was excited about how much room there was to express the bigness of love."

Folie à deux is "an actual term, where it's this idea of shared madness," Phillips explains. According to Phoenix, the filmmaker "doesn't run from what might be uncomfortable," adding they both "felt there was more to explore" with Arthur after the events of 2019's Joker. "Todd wanted it off-the-cuff and dirty in a way that you don't typically see."

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Along with the sneak peek comes a new teaser previewing "what happens when a hurricane hits a tornado," Gaga teases of Joker and Harley's bad romance. 

In addition to Phoenix and Gaga, the cast includes Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2), Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin), Steve Coogan (the Alan Partridge comedies), Catherine Keener (Get Out), Ken Leung (X-Men: The Last Stand), and Harry Lawtey (HBO's Industry) as Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent, who is prosecuting the Joker trial.

Joker 2 is in theaters October 4th.

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