Todd Phillips Says “Music Is an Essential Element” in Joker Sequel

The newly released Joker: Folie à Deux trailer gave us a first look at Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga in action in the highly anticipated sequel to Todd Phillips' 2019 film.

Landing during the Warner Bros panel at this year's CinemaCon, the trailer has been seen over 13 million times on YouTube alone and had audiences buzzing about what to expect from Todd Phillips' next chapter.

One of the draws, so far, to the sequel for audiences has been due to the film's curious label of a jukebox musical. The first film utilized its score -which landed Hildur Guðnadóttir an Oscar - to the max, but now it is said that music is an essential element in the sequel.

The first trailer gives a taste of how intrinsic music is to the narrative, featuring a dreamy score that crescendos into a chilling cover of "What the World Needs Now Is Love", which twinkles beneath the imagery reminiscent of old studio musical movies.

Phillips seems reluctant to dub the film a musical, however, saying, "We never really talked about it like that, but I like to say it's a film where music is an essential element. To me, that doesn't veer too far from the first film".

Speaking of Arthur Fleck, the film's titular character, Phillips spoke to the first film's affinity for its score. "[Arthur] has music in him. He has a grace to him. That informed a lot of the dancing in the first film."

Phillips says of the sequel, "it didn't feel like that big of a step here. It's different, but I think it'll make sense when you see it."

When Lady Gaga got cast in the role of Harley Quinn, audiences started speculating that music would be a large part of Joker: Folie à Deux due to Gaga's role in Bradley Cooper's directorial debut, A Star is Born.

Gaga won an Oscar for her Best Original Song, "Shallow", sharing the accolade with Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt.

Phillips was a producer on A Star is Born and said, "That was the first time I really met her and got to watch her work. As we were writing this script, Scott [Silver], who I wrote it with, kept going back to her."

Source: EW