Zazie Beetz in Talks to Reprise Her Role in JOKER: FOLIE A DUEX

Zazie Beetz is in talks to reprise her role as Sophie Dumond in director Todd Phillips’ upcoming Joker sequel project, Joker: Folie à Deux. She will join Joaquin Pheonix and Lady Gaga who will be playing Joker and Harley Quinn in the film.

The sequel will be a musical that will mostly be set in Arkham Asylum, which is sure to make for an interesting sequel. Beetz recently spoke to The Hollywood Reporter and shared her thoughts on the sequel being a musical and she thinks the genre shift "makes wonderful sense" and aligns with Phillips' "creative approach to the character":

"I actually think it makes wonderful sense. I wasn’t really surprised by that. Todd [Phillips] has always had a creative approach to the character. I love musicals, and I think of them as the characters are feeling and experiencing so much that they can only sing and dance about it, whether in sorrow or in joy."

Beetz went on to say that she finds singing and dancing to be a "cathartic experience," and said that it would make sense for Arthur, who is "feeling and experiencing so much," to turn to music, She explained:

"I can actually see that within myself as well, because singing and dancing is quite a cathartic experience for me. I was going through a really, really difficult time at one point in my life, and I just started dancing and crying by myself. And that was an expression that matched where I was at that moment. And so I can see Arthur, who is feeling and experiencing so much, dancing and singing about it. He’s the Joker, so I think it makes sense to me."

She also talked about the fate of her character explaining that Sophie survived the first film because her character "never actively wronged Arthur" and his victims were "generally people that pointedly hurt him" and her character was just "a bystander to his situation":

"Yeah, in my mind, she lives because she never actively wronged Arthur. His victims in the film were generally people that pointedly hurt him. Even within the horror of his realization around his own state of mind, he acknowledges that she’s more of a bystander to his situation than an actor to his situation. So, to me, it made sense that she wouldn’t be harmed by him because his harm was intentional towards certain people and then society at large, which he also felt wronged by in a way. So in my mind, she makes it out unscathed, at least physically."

Now, it looks like we’ll get to see her story arc actually continue in the sequel. It’ll be interesting to see how that will play out.

Source: Deadline