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Lady Gaga In Early Talks To Play Harley Quinn Opposite Joaquin Phoenix In 'Joker 2'

The sequel which is also a musical will see a Quinn that exists in a different DC universe than the Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn.

Lady Gaga performs onstage during the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 03, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

Lady Gaga might just play Harley Quinn in director Todd Phillips’ Joker sequel. The first film starred Joaquin Phoenix as the antagonist based on the DC character and the 47-year-old actor is expected to reprise the role of Arthur Fleck, who’s now become Gotham City’s Clown Prince of Crime. The sequel to the 2019 Oscar-winning, $1 billion Warner Bros. hit will be a musical and is titled Joker: Folie à deux which Phillips revealed on social media last week. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the title of the upcoming project references a medical term for an identical or similar mental disorder that affects two or more individuals, usually members of the same family.



 

Based on the original source material, Harley Quinn was once Dr. Harleen Qunizel, a psychiatrist who treated The Joker at Arkham Asylum, and then fell in love with him and became his partner-in-crime. It'll be interesting to watch Lady Gaga play the role especially since the sequel will be a musical. The pop icon will be the second actress to bring the character to life in the world of live-action film, after Margot Robbie who starred as the DC Extended Universe’s Quinn in Suicide Squad, Birds of Prey and The Suicide Squad. Gaga's Quinn will be a new Quinn who exists in a different DC universe than the Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. Phillips previously produced A Star Is Born, the 2018 remake that starred Joker producer Bradley Cooper and Gaga. The 2019 Joker film received 11 Oscar nominations, including best picture, and won best actor (for Phoenix) and best score (for Hildur Guonadottir).



 

Another Joker movie could go a long way towards establishing an R-rated brand or label for DC films. This is something the filmmaker always had plans for since working with the character. "When I pitched them Joker, it wasn't a movie, it was, let's do a whole label," Phillips said in 2019, per Comic Book. "They shut that down quickly and I get it. Who am I to walk in and start a label at a film studio? But they said, let's do this one." "Here's the real truth about a sequel," he added. "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."