- The 2019 film Joker, which was anchored by the award-winning performance of Joaquin Phoenix, was nothing short of a critical and commercial success.
- As a result, Warner Bros. is willing to pay Phoenix upwards of $50 million if he’s willing to sign on for two more films.
- Negotiations are said to be ongoing, but we might see Phoenix reprise the role of Arthur Fleck as early as 2022.
After Joaquin Phoenix’s award-winning and stellar performance portraying the Joker in the 2019 film of the same name, Warner Bros. is reportedly ready to spend a boatload of cash in order to get two more Joker films out of him. Even though Phoenix initially envisioned Joker as a standalone movie — and it certainly does have that vibe — the wild success the film saw upon its release means that there’s a whole a lot of money to be made with a few sequels.
According to the Mirror, Phoenix might earn a cool $50 million if he decides to don the clown makeup and reprise his role as the iconic supervillain.
Speaking to someone close to Phoenix, the report notes that the actor “changed his tune” in regards to it being a standalone movie and “wants to play the character again.”
The report adds that negotiations are ongoing but that scripts are being worked on in the meantime. Put simply, the first movie made so much money that making two more is essentially an inevitability at this point.
The Mirror’s source adds:
They plan to make two sequels in the next four years, with a long-term commitment to Joaquin and his Joker director Todd Phillips and producer Bradley Cooper. It’s all about getting Joaquin to accept the terms – and the biggest payday of his career by far.
If all goes according to plan, Warner Bros. his hoping to release new Joker movies in 2022 and 2024.
As an aside, Phoenix’s Joker portrayal was particularly interesting and unusual in that that he didn’t play a supervillain in the traditional sense. Whereas Heath Ledger’s Joker was a plotting and evil mastermind, Phoenix’s character was nothing more than a down on his luck guy pushed to the brink by a myriad of external circumstances. Though not everyone was a fan of this fresh take, there’s no denying that Phoenix’s acting was outstanding.
Now does the world need another Joker movie? As great as the first one was, I’m inclined to say no. Again, Phoenix as Arthur Fleck lacked the cunning we’ve long associated with the Joker character. And while the ending to the film was shocking and surprising, Fleck at the end of the day doesn’t seem like the type of evil character an entire trilogy can rest upon. All the same, the film garnered more than $1 billion at the box office, which is to say a trilogy is on the way no matter what I or anyone else thinks.
