Though it was originally deemed a risky proposition, Joker‘s rise to the top of the box office and journey to becoming the highest grossing R-rated film in history has been mighty impressive. A lot of people were initially skeptical about giving the Clown Prince of Crime a gritty and R-rated origin story, but director Todd Phillips and star Joaquin Phoenix proved all their doubters wrong in spectacular fashion.
After earning incredibly enthusiastic reviews and finding much love from audiences, the pic is also now being positioned for a huge awards season push, and as the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever, not to mention the most profitable comic book film, too, it comes as no surprise that Joker has officially been granted a sequel.
If you’ll recall, We Got This Covered was the first outlet to tell you that Warner Bros. was moving ahead with a follow-up last month and now, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed our scoop, saying that a sequel is indeed in development and that both Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver will return alongside Phoenix. Details beyond that are scarce at the moment, but obviously, this is terrific news.
It’ll be fascinating to see how Warner Bros. builds off the success of the first film and from what we’ve heard from our sources, the same ones who first told us about Joker 2 last month, the sequel will be set several years after the original and introduce more DC villains. Not to mention we’ll also get to see more of Arthur’s rise as a criminal in Gotham City.
Beyond that, we don’t know much, but with the core creative team behind Joker returning for the follow-up, there’s no reason to think it won’t be just as successful a venture and we can’t wait to learn what else WB may have in store for us.