Joker: Folie à Deux – Brendan Gleeson Reportedly Joins The Cast

It isn’t surprising that Warner Bros. is making a sequel to Joker since the first one was a massive hit that made a ton of money at the box office, and it walked away with wins during the awards season. Even people that didn’t like the movie [like me] can respect that Warner Bros. let director Todd Phillips make the movie he wanted with what appeared to be minimal meddling. That’s a good thing, and we love to see it. Since we have learned the title, Joker: Folie à Deux, that Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix are both set to return, and it was confirmed this month that Lady Gaga is also joining the cast as Harley Quinn. Oh, and the movie is a musical. Absolutely buckwild stuff [again, we love to see it]. Some more casting has started coming down the grapevine as production is supposed to begin later this year. Zazie Beetz is set to reprise her role, and now Deadline is reporting that Brendan Gleeson is also set to join the cast, but in an unknown role. While details about the plot remain sparse, that “musical elements” stuff is still floating around, and it is set to take place at Arkham Asylum, which, considering the title and the history of Joker and Harley, is starting to paint a picture of what this movie could be about.

That title, Joker: Folie à Deux, is also telling since Folie à Deux, or “madness of two,” is defined as “an identical or similar mental disorder affecting two or more individuals, usually the members of a close family.” Usually, in close family relationships, but sometimes in other types of relationships, one family member suffers some sort of psychotic break or delusion, passing it along to another family member. One notable incidence of this is with Ursula Eriksson and Sabina Eriksson, identical twins who had an incident in May of 2008 which left a man dead. One could argue that the original version of Joker and Harley was doing some version of Folie à Deux, only now we are adding the actual terminology to the incident. The interesting thing here is that Folie à Deux is not something one does intentionally to another person, and it was always implied that the Joker intentionally manipulated Harley of his own violations. If they are pursuing Folie à Deux, that will make it much greyer whether he meant to manipulate her. Does this version of the Joker even mean to drag Harley down with him, or does it just happen because they become very close? Again, all speculation, but it could add a new dynamic to their relationship that we haven’t seen before.

Warner Bros. and DC have wanted to make a Joker and Harley movie for years and making it a musical? It’s one of those things that will either work so well it’s going to be brilliant, or the entire thing will fall apart. We know that both Phoenix and Gaga can act, and seeing Gaga playing someone like Harley would be a lot of fun. For a taste of what she could look like in this role, check out House of Gucci, where she goes pretty over the top in a fun way. As someone who didn’t like Joker, though? This is the sort of out-of-left-field sort of thing that actually makes me interested in Joker: Folie à Deux. The current release date is October 4, 2024.