Prepare to be serenaded by the Joker and Harley Quinn.
At long last, the trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux, the hotly-anticipated follow-up to the Oscar-winning 2019 DC film, has landed, giving fans a first look at Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck/Joker and Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn setting off on a crime spree – and, perhaps more surprisingly, forming a musical duo.
There has been much speculation about whether Joker 2 will be a musical – fuelled by Gaga’s casting as Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn.
But Joker 2 director Todd Phillips recently clarified that the film isn’t a musical, but that music is an “essential element”.
Speaking at CinemaCon, he added (via Entertainment Weekly): “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.
“Arthur’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 further about casting Gaga, he 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.”
So, do we know which songs are set to feature in the film? Read on for everything we know so far.
What songs feature in the Joker 2 soundtrack?
The artists set to be featured on the soundtrack are yet to be announced.
Variety reported in March that the film will include “at least 15” song covers, with one said to be That’s Entertainment from the 1953 musical The Band Wagon, famously associated with Judy Garland.
The publication also reported at the time that there was a door open for an original song or two to be added to the final version.
The trailer doesn’t give us many clues either, as it doesn’t show either Phoenix or Gaga performing any musical numbers.
However, the footage is soundtracked by What the World Needs Now Is Love, a song first recorded by Jackie DeShannon in 1965.
Does this mean the movie might include more ’60s songs? Possibly. But for now, fans will have to wait for more information.
Joker: Folie à Deux will premiere in cinemas on Friday 4th October 2024.
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