Screengrab from the teaser of 'Joker: Folie a Deux'
Credit: Youtube/Warner Bros. Pictures
Joker: Folie a Deux, the much-anticipated sequel to Hangover director Todd Phillips's take on the clown prince of Gotham, has made its first teaser trailer available to the public.
The two minute twenty-four second clip shows Joaquin Phoenix's Joker meet Lady Gaga's Harley Quinn for the first time. Unlike the DC comics, the director takes the creative liberty of introducing Joker's partner as an inmate of Arkham Asylum, rather than a doctor.
In the comics, Harley meets Joker while he is an inmate, and in the course of treating him, finds herself more taken in by him - eventually switching to a life of crime and becoming Joker's partner.
Here, Lady Gaga's character ominously says she wants to see the "real" Arthur Fleck - Phoenix's character, who becomes Joker in the first movie.
Touted as a 'jukebox musical' the film is expected to break the mould of conventional superhero movies. However, the trailer did not have any bites of the songs that might be there in the movie, but did offer viewers numerous sequences of Joker and Harley Quinn dancing, often against the backdrop of a chaotic Gotham City.
While specific details of the film remains unknown, it has been touted as a drama with parts of it taking place in and around Arkham Asylum. The teaser also focuses more on Joker's relationship with Harley, while keeping the villain as the main subject.
As the tagline promises -- Joker is not alone anymore. To that end, when Fleck is asked in the teaser what has changed for him, he replies that everything has changed, since he is not 'alone anymore'.
Joker: Folie a Deux is slated to release on October 4, 2024, and also stars Zazie Beetz, who appeared in the first movie as Fleck's neighbour, along with Catherine Keener, and Brendan Gleeson.