It’s no surprise that the Joker director and co-screenwriter, Todd Phillips, is open to a sequel after the huge box office success of the film.
Joker made over $1 billion worldwide and it was also the first R-rated film to accomplish this. At Deadline’s The Contenders New York award-season event, Phillips talked about his experience working with Joker star Joaquin Phoenix, “Working with him, for me, was the greatest experience I’ve had in terms of director and actor. I mean part of it was because it’s a character study with one person.”
When Phillips was asked about the possibility of a sequel he said, “When a movie does $1 billion and cost $60 million to make, of course it comes up. But Joaquin and I haven’t really decided on it. We’re open. I mean, I’d love to work with him on anything, quite frankly. So who knows? But it would have to have a real thematic resonance the way this one did, ultimately being about childhood trauma and the lack of love, and the loss of empathy. All those things are really what made this movie work for us, so we’d have to have something that had an equal thematic resonance.”
