The musical nature of “Joker 2” can confirm the biggest fan theory about the “Joker” of 2019. After years of whispers and whispers, the musically styled “Joker 2” is officially on the air, with director Todd Phillips returning and Joaquin Phoenix ready to return as Arthur Fleck. In “Joker 2”, under the working title “Joker: Foley-a-two”, Lady Gaga will also be in the role of Harley Quinn, and the announcement of her role led to the most unexpected discovery that the film is a musical.
The specifics of “Joker 2” as a musical still remain unclear and can include anything from a Broadway-style approach to a riff from the “Rocky Horror Show”. However, this aspect of “Joker 2” could provide an important clue without announcing it as such. In short, “Joker 2” as a musical can confirm that the events of “Joker” never actually happened.
RELATED: The Joker: what really happened to Arthur fleck’s mom
In The Joker, Arthur Fleck, played by Joaquin Phoenix, inadvertently becomes the face of the uprising of the poor residents of Gotham City against the rich classes of the city. Similarly, the film also explains that Arthur has a serious mental illness, and his condition is aggravated when budget cuts in city social services deprive him of access to medicines on which he depends. This would lead many to assume that the Joker’s final scene showing Arthur in Arkham Asylum laughing at a joke and saying that his therapist “wouldn’t understand” proves that the whole movie took place in Arthur’s head.
The transition from a nihilistic story about the gradual transformation of one person into a murderer to a musical became unpleasant news for many already in the announcement itself. The Joker revealed how Arthur bemoaned his difficulties in his diary and claimed to be an aspiring but ultimately failed comedian, which was highlighted by the potential possibility that this was just Arthur’s delusion. Thus, Phillips can portray a different fantasy in “Joker 2”, allowing the musical element of the film to be much less harsh in terms of narrative.
It is already possible to verify that some parts of the Joker were Arthur’s illusions, most notably his promising romance with his neighbor Sophie (Zazie Bitz). Despite the fact that the couple is depicted on a date in the film, Arthur being in Sophie’s apartment without warning leads to the discovery that she doesn’t really know him. Since it was confirmed that most of the film was in Arthur’s head, many viewers simply extrapolated this to the entire Joker before the end of Arkham Asylum. Joker 2 can offer the best proof of the veracity of this theory with its inexplicable transition to the musical.
Despite the controversy before its release (which may have benefited the film), “The Joker” became nothing more than a monstrous hit in 2019, and Joaquin Phoenix even won an Oscar for his performance. In The Joker 2, Phillips can tell a completely new story that directly confirms the purely fictional nature of Arthur’s story in The Joker. It might even make “Joker 2” the ultimate big-screen incarnation of the Joker’s own point of view on his origins, expressed in “Batman: The Killing Joke”: “Sometimes I remember it this way, sometimes differently. If I have a past, I prefer multiple choice.”
