Director Todd Phillips Sets The Record Straight on The JOKER Sequel Reports

Yesterday a big report went out from a major entertainment news outlet that Todd Phillips was officially moving forward with a Joker sequel at Warner Bros., and that he would be also be developing an original film for one other DC character.

Well, it turns out that there’s no truth to this news. In fact, the meeting that Phillips is said to have had with the studio never actually took place. The filmmaker set the record straight in an interview with Indiewire:

“First of all, if you know me and my career, that’s not my style. I made a huge comedy at Warner Bros., The Hangover, and I didn’t suddenly become a comedy factory producer, like, oh, let’s just churn out movies. Bradley [Cooper] and I have a production company at Warners. I’ve been at Warners for 15, 16 years. We have two things in development at all times, not 40 things like some people. I’m not the kind of guy who goes marching in saying I want these 40 titles. I just don’t have the energy.”

He then went on to offer the real truth about a Joker sequel, explaining:

“Here’s the real truth about a sequel. While Joaquin and I have talked about it, and while touring the world with Warner Bros executives — going to Toronto, and Venice, and other places — of course, we’re sitting at dinner and they’re saying, ‘So, have you thought about…?’ But, talking about contracts, there’s not a contract for us to even write a sequel, we’ve never approached Joaquin to be in a sequel. Will that happen? Again, I just think the article was anticipatory at best.”

So, as of right now, there is no Joker sequel officially happening, which I’m totally fine with! Joker works perfectly as a standalone film. It doesn’t need a sequel, but we all know that the studio is going to be pushing for one, especially with the amount of money it made at the box office.