The trailer for Todd Phillip’s Joker sequel launched on July 23 to the delight of DC fans. Audiences sampled Joaquin Phoenix’s reprise of his beloved role as Joker, and Lady Gaga’s new role as Harley Quinn.
The film follows Phoenix as Arthur Fleck after his Joker transformation when he meets Harley Quinn and is imprisoned in Arkham State Hospital. After his release, the pair begin their doomed romance in Gotham City, spreading musical mayhem.
The film was previously teased as a musical and is further confirmed with this newest trailer release. Both Phoenix and Gaga can be heard singing in the trailer, most explicitly through Phoenix’s haunting rendition of Louis Armstrong’s “When You’re Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You).”
Phillip’s original 2019 Joker movie won Phoenix an Oscar for Best Performance in a Leading Role and a nomination for Best Motion Picture. Though audiences seemed to love the film, some critics critiqued its attempts to draw empathy toward a mass murderer.
After the release of Joker (2019), there were bomb and shooting threats across America in theaters screening the film, reminiscent of “The Dark Knight Rises” movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado in 2012. Multiple threats and attempts to incite violence were posted online and were largely tied to the “incel” community, or the “involuntary celibate.”
It is believed that the “incel” community views the Joker as a representation of themselves and their perceived social inequalities and alienation. This idolization of a character who causes mass destruction and violence is extremely harmful because of its ability to incite violence, especially against women.
As much as Incels like to claim the Joker as their messiah, there is one obvious thing that sets The Joker apart from the “incel” community; he is not presumably celibate. His partnership with Harley Quinn is a massive part of his character and is featured in nearly every DC movie.
With the second Joker hitting theaters in early October, it will be interesting to see how this community reacts to Joker’s pairing with Quinn, especially with a leading actress like Lady Gaga, who has shown herself to be a fearless advocate, especially for women.
The DC community has seen other Quinn’s before, like Margot Robbie’s performance in the Suicide Squad franchise. Gaga and Robbie are drastically different actresses, and this change could be an exciting shift for Quinn’s character, and maybe even the DC universe’s depiction of female characters as a whole.
Joker: Folie à Deux will be hitting theaters on October 4th, where audiences can see this musical pair hit the big screen for the first time.
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