Joaquin Phoenix Wanted to Do ‘Joker 2’ As a Broadway Show

Joker: Folie à Deux is a full-blown musical — but it was almost a full-blown musical on Broadway.

That was apparently the original vision that Joaquin Phoenix had for the film. And this is an almost literal vision. As Phoenix told Variety, while he and director Todd Phillips were still working on the original Joker, the star “fell asleep one night” and had a dream about “Arthur Fleck, the man behind Joker’s clown makeup, performing onstage, telling jokes and singing.”

Phoenix recalls that in the dream Phillips was talking to him “through a headset” and he woke up “feeling elated and called him, hoping he’d want to do a show with me.”

Ultimately the plan proved unfeasible. Although they did explore the idea of a Joker stage show, Phillips says, they eventually “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?” They did consider doing something on a smaller scale for the theater, but then Covid ruined those plans.

READ MORE: All the Easter Eggs You Missed in the Joker: Folie à Deux Trailer

Instead, the second Joker film evolved into a full-blown musical, starring Phoenix alongside Lady Gaga as a new version of Harley Quinn. In addition to fullfilling Phoenix’s vision of musical stardom, Phillips says the idea answered the question “How can we top ourselves?” in a Joker sequel. (“You can only do that if you do something dangerous,” he added.)

Joker: Folie à Deux is scheduled to open in theaters on October 4. And if you think a Joker musical show sounds impossible and insane, don’t forget: They did it with Spider-Man a few years ago. And that turned out great, right?