Joker: Folie à Deux director Todd Phillips explains musical sequences: 'It's different'

Joaquin Phoenix's Joker and Lady Gaga's Harley Quinn are set to dance to the sweet sounds of love — and mayhem — judging by director Todd Phillips' explanation of Joker: Folie à Deux's long-rumored musical sequences.

Phillips was on hand Tuesday night at the film's presentation at CinemaCon Las Vegas, where Warner Bros. unveiled the first footage from the project, which is set to pick up as Arthur Fleck (Phoenix, who evolves into Gotham City's No. 1 villain throughout Joker) becomes romantically entangled with a fellow Arkham Asylum patient, Harleen Quinzel (Gaga), during his stay at the institution. The first trailer — soundtracked by a cover of "What the World Needs Now Is Love" — shows that the pair becomes so entangled that they break free from their confinement and seemingly wreak havoc on Gotham City through hallucinatory song-and-dance scenes.

"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," Phillips said of the new movie's tone, referencing the way Phoenix's titular character navigated the original film to set the stage for the upcoming sequel. "Arthur [Fleck]'s weird and aloof and all these things, but he has music in him. He has a grace to him. That informed a lot of the dancing in the first film... 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."

Speaking about choosing Gaga for the role, Phillips said, "We cast Gaga because she's magic. I was a producer on A Star Is Born ... 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."

Last week, the project's first poster seemed to confirm that music would play a big role in the movie. It depicted Phoenix dipping Gaga in a haunting dance as light trickled in from what appears to be an Arkham window. Further adding fuel to speculation about the film's fantastical nature, its French subtitle, Folie à Deux, directly translates to "madness for two" and is used to describe a psychiatric condition involving a shared psychosis.

Later, the film's TikTok account shared an audio snippet of Gaga's voice as Harley Quinn, with the pop icon debuting a remarkably un-affected take on a character usually portrayed with a strong Brooklyn accent.

"You can do anything you want," Gaga's Harley coos in the clip. "You're Joker."

The film follows the success of its 2019 predecessor, which earned more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office, a Best Picture nomination at the 2020 Oscars, and a Best Actor win for Phoenix.

Warner Bros.' Joker: Folie à Deux — also starring Zazie Beetz, Brendan Gleeson, and Catherine Keener, and produced by Bradley Cooper — opens in theaters on Oct. 4.

— Additional reporting by Nick Romano

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