JOKER 2: Upcoming Sequel to Oscar Nominated Film Still Has No Script

Joker 2 Not Ready To Go In Front of Cameras Quite Yet

The promised sequel to the Academy Award nominated film, Joker, may have been given a “go” but the project still has no script yet.

Arthur Fleck, as portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix in the 2019 film Joker, most likely had a lot of interesting thoughts on his mind at the end of the original picture. However, the screenplay for a follow up film to the aforementioned box-office smash has yet to be turned in to the studio. That’s not to say that, after the smashing success of Todd Phillip’s Oscar-winning (for Best Actor and Best Original Score) picture, the studio doesn’t want to put it out on time. It just needs to be written first.

While many people are eagerly awaiting the return of Joaquin Phoenix, this project will not go in front of cameras until next year at the earliest. Let’s face it–it will take time to get a script together and to get the production rolling. The film’s actors will need to be cast and those performers will then need to memorize their lines but, as of now, there are still no definitive supporting roles or lines to memorize. One could also blame the pandemic, as well, for the lack of a script for the new picture. The pandemic, which came right at the time Joker won its two Oscars in early 2020, led to a shut down of film productions and creativity was put at a stand-still as a result.

Joker earned a “B+” CinemaScore grade despite its dark themes and scored $335 million domestically and added enough money to its gross from international markets to surpass $1 billion worldwide. That film was an origin picture and showed audiences how and why Fleck became the Joker. It is known mostly by movie-goers for its scene where Joker dances smoothly on some stairs in the Bronx before being chased by the cops.

As a person who complained about certain aspects of the original Joker, recent events have led me to change my mind from my initial impression of the film. I marginally turned my thumb “down” on Joker mainly because I couldn’t believe that Fleck could just walk into a talk show with a gun and blow away Robert De Niro’s talk show host character in the movie. Wouldn’t security have caught him bringing the gun in? That may be what I thought then but it’s been easy to change my mind after repeated viewings of the much loved film. I wouldn’t have believed it back then even if I saw Arthur Fleck walk up to Robert De Niro and slap his character in the film without security intervening but the past few days have proven unbelievable things can, indeed, happen.

The director of 2019’s acclaimed film, Joker, Todd Phillips, attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and proved himself to be a talent to contend with with his previous 2019 film. While Joker 2 is, probably, going to move forward at some point, now is not the time, unfortunately. It’s going to be hard to tie up some of the characters from the original Joker for a new plot. But, it should be done.

Let’s hope the screenplay gets penned soon and that the “write” thing is done. In the interim, The Batman recently made waves at the box-office and introduced another potential “Joker,” played by Barry Keoghan. Whether Keoghan or Phoenix will be the next “Joker” to appear on the silver screen is an interesting guessing game at this point.

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