Todd Phillips’s next Joker movie will be something fun, something for the summertime, something for the girls to get ready and party to. According to a Hollywood Reporter exclusive, Lady Gaga is attached to the first musical sequel of a superhero IP, Joker: Folie à Deux, thereby yassifying the franchise (and perhaps giving Joker’s OG stans whiplash … How is straight male disaffection going to square up with the woman who made hit songs like “Venus�). Gaga is in early talks to play Harley Quinn, a psychiatrist who falls in love with Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) during his stay at the Arkham Asylum and later becomes his on-again-off-again girlfriend–slash–partner in crime. Margot Robbie just explained all of this.
The new developments raise the question: Casting directors, what do you know about this film that we don’t? Has Todd Phillips moved on from making the Costco version of Taxi Driver and instead wants to make the Dollar Tree Umbrellas of Cherbourg? Will Harley Quinn, like Lady Gaga, be of the Italian experience? Was Margot Robbie busy, so you just panicked and picked a name out of a hat? Will Joker drop Harley off somewhere, pause endearingly, and say, “I just wanted to take another look at you†in a Jackson Maine voice? And why are you, casting directors, so much in our business that you know the only way we’ll see another Joker movie is if Lady Gaga is in it? Or is this all for a press tour where the pop star shares more lessons from the Lady Gaga School of Method Acting? Answers are necessary, but so is a Spotify pre-save link for all the songs she’s in …