Joker: Folie à Deux – How a Broadway musical Could Have Saved This DC Sequel!
Joker 2: The Sequel That Could Have Been (and Maybe Should Have Been!)
Joker: Folie à Deux, the sequel to the critically acclaimed 2019 Joker movie, hasn't quite replicated its predecessor's success. Box office numbers are lower, and reactions from viewers are way more mixed. What gives? Well, we are going to explore an extremely important part that most critics failed to even acknowledge properly. Let's dive deep into the production history of Joker 2!
Many people forget that the decision to produce Joker 2 was a calculated decision; born from that crazy success of Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Phillips' original movie and was not a purely financially driven decision – some deep thematic concerns helped contribute to the initial plans for Joker 2, plans which are incredibly significant in helping explain why Joker: Folie à Deux faced criticism that it did, and especially now that some details are slowly becoming available to be known to audiences everywhere.
From Broadway Musical to Big Screen Madness: A Pivotal Shift
The very first concept was mind-blowing: a Broadway musical! Yes, really. This original concept could've changed the landscape of the sequel entirely, and completely avoided a good deal of the later criticisms found among reviewers and especially the later general public and even audience members who already liked Joker (2019).
Why this change? Todd Phillips mentions in an interview with Variety, it simply wasn’t feasible: "When we started really thinking about it, we realized it takes four years to put something like that together. And is Joaquin really going to give six months of his life to do that every night onstage?" COVID-19 played its part too; leading to further changes and development! This meant another set of choices regarding plot development and those elements that could’ve otherwise been added had those earlier plans for development progressed normally.
Could a Broadway Musical Have Changed Everything?
A lot of Joker: Folie à Deux’s criticism comes from those audience expectations – based on Joker (2019) and other typical superhero movies. If it had been a Broadway musical however those problems wouldn't necessarily have existed!
The inherent musicality of the actual movie might've gone over far better if it were expected from the very start, reducing negative critical impacts surrounding this key thematic choice, even enhancing and better presenting this plot development to that very same audience; demonstrating how such plans were made.
It’s very important for the viewers to realize why it might have changed the perception regarding Joker 2's overall attempts at subverting expectations, even altering those unexpected narrative twists in surprising, yet arguably positive ways! Had Joker 2 been presented as this hugely different, genre-bending musical experience, and emphasized it through production and release planning. It might still have been divisive— but perhaps with far less significant negativity!
Conclusion: What Might Have Been...
It's all fascinating, right? It’s easy to wonder "What if?" That discarded Broadway musical plan is more than just a cool piece of trivia; it was potentially a way better path towards creating this already complex sequel. By highlighting Joker 2's entire process; including its early developments; this demonstrates the difficulty, effort and planning involved in making Movies. It provides interesting context around those criticisms! A much more creative approach may have been far, far less controversial. This is extremely food for thought and might explain some of those unexpected choices in its already very questionable final product.
