New Joker: Folie à Deux Trailer Confirms Batman Villain Harvey Dent

Joker and Harley are two sides of the same coin in Joker: Folie À Deux. In the just-released full trailer for the sequel set two years after 2019’s Joker, infamous comedian-turned-criminal Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is awaiting trial for his riot-inciting crimes as the Joker. Institutionalized at Arkham Asylum, Gotham City’s clown-painted folk hero turns the televised “trial of the century” into a media circus when the future Batman arch-nemesis finds an accomplice — and a shared psychosis — in fellow patient Harleen Quinzel (Lady Gaga). 

But the proto-Harley Quinn isn’t the only Bat-villain debuting in director Todd Phillips’ gritty and grounded DC universe. When watched with closed captioning, the Joker 2 trailer reveals that Harvey Dent — Gotham City’s crusading, law-abiding district attorney who eventually becomes the disfigured criminal Two-Face — is prosecuting the Arthur Fleck trial.

Gotham’s legion of pro-Joker protestors “believe Arthur Fleck to be some kind of martyr,” Dent intones in voiceover. “Well, he’s not. He’s a monster.”

Industry and The Pale Blue Eye actor Harry Lawtey (pictured below) is playing the Joker version of Harvey Dent, who has appeared in live-action in 1989’s Batman (played by Billy Dee Williams), 1995’s Batman Forever (played by Tommy Lee Jones), and 2008’s The Dark Knight (played by Aaron Eckhart). Nicholas D’Agosto played a young, pre-Two-Face Dent on TV’s Gotham, and Misha Collins played the acid-scarred villain on The CW’s Gotham Knights.

Most versions of the character depict Dent as suffering a psychotic break after half his face is horribly scarred by a criminal’s attack. (In the Christopher Nolan-directed The Dark Knight, it’s the Joker himself who drives Dent mad.) 

Dent is also rumored for the upcoming The Batman Part II — the second chapter of Matt Reeves’ standalone “Epic Crime Saga” that includes The Penguin — with Josh Hartnett (Oppenheimer, Trap) and Joel Edgerton (Obi-Wan Kenobi, Dark Matter) the reported frontrunners for the role as the iconic DC villain.

Joker: Folie À Deux also stars Oscar nominees Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin) and Catherine Keener (Get Out), alongside Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2), reprising her Joker role as Sophie Dumond, and Jacob Lofland (Mud), Steve Coogan (Philomena), and Ken Leung (X-Men: The Last Stand) in undisclosed roles. The movie opens only in theaters October 4th.