Joker’s unreliable narrator twist was a perfect conclusion for the film, but it creates a difficult challenge for Joker: Folie à Deux’ Harley story.
Joker’s ending twist elevated the movie, yet it created an almost impossible challenge for Joker: Folie à Deux. The ending of Joker (2019) reveals that a lot of what happened to and around Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), including most of his interactions with Sophie (Zazie Beetz), was a figment of his imagination. Joker’s unreliable narrator reveal changes every scene that came before it and makes a rewatch of the film a lot more interesting. However, now that Joker 2 is happening, not everything that worked in the first film will necessarily work in the sequel.
While Joker works perfectly as a self-contained movie, the fact that a Joker sequel is happening is hardly a surprise. Joker (2019) broke the billion-dollar barrier at the worldwide box office and is currently the highest-grossing R-Rated movie of all time. In addition, Joaquin Phoenix’s Oscar-winning performance as the Joker was just too good not to be revisited in some form. Phoenix’s Joker will be joined by Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn in Joker 2, raising the question of from whose perspective the sequel will be told.
Joker’s Unreliable Narrator Twist Won’t Work Twice
Joker’s unreliable narrator twist was a fitting conclusion for the movie. Not only it invited audiences to rethink everything they had seen throughout the film up until that point, but it also created a sense of mystery regarding Joker’s ending. If Arthur Fleck was not a reliable narrator, the ending of Joker could now be interpreted in many different ways. As a self-contained Joker movie without any connections to the DC Universe, Joker needed something special for the film to be remembered for years to come. The unreliable narrator twist added to Joker’s open ending succeeded in this mission, but such a combination cannot be replicated.
Joker 2 has to avoid replicating story beats from Joker unless they are part of intentional parallels. Otherwise, Joker: Folie à Deux‘s story risks feeling like a rehash of the first movie, which would add to the idea that a Joker sequel should not even have happened in the first place. In addition, Joker’s unreliable narrator twist only worked because audiences did not know what to expect from the film. Joker: Folie à Deux cannot replicate this, as those who watched Joker will already assume that everything involving Arthur Fleck may not be what it looks like.
Joker 2 Needs Credibility For Its Story Beats
Joker: Folie à Deux needs to be as innovative and unpredictable as Joker was, which means it needs credibility for its story beats. Joker 2 has the difficult mission of justifying its existence, as Joker was originally marketed as a self-contained comic book film that would steer away from the usual superhero movie franchise tropes. The fact that Joker is getting a sequel risked losing what made the original movie so different from other comic book adaptations, which only increases the expectations for Joker 2. In addition, Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn in Joker 2 means that the sequel could be bigger than the first film in terms of scope.
Joker 2 has one advantage compared to other comic book movie sequels, though. Joker: Folie à Deux could be a completely standalone story with little to no connections to Joker and would still work as a sequel. Todd Phillips’ approach to Joker’s character in the 2019 film was not concerned with DC canon or any Batman continuity. This is exemplified by the fact that Arthur Fleck becomes the Joker when Bruce Wayne is still a 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥. Folie à Deux could be its own story, perhaps even ignoring the events of Joker to tell a new, original story about the same characters.
Harley Quinn Joining The Joker 2 Makes Arthur’s Narration More Complicated
Assuming that Joker: Folie à Deux will feel like a sequel to Joker and will continue to tell the story from Arthur’s perspective, the addition of Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn could make the story more complicated. Zazie Beetz’s Sophie lacked agency in Joker precisely because most of the scenes featuring the character were actually part of Arthur’s delusions. In reality, Sophie barely interacted with Arthur, yet the film had shown an entire love story about them. Something similar cannot be done in Joker: Folie à Deux, as Harley Quin is expected to be as much of a lead character as the Joker.
Joker 2’s title itself reveals that Lady Gaga will be a co-lead alongside Joaquin Phoenix. It is difficult to imagine that the entirety of Harley Quinn’s story in Joker 2 could be the result of Arhtur’s delusion, mostly because Harley is too big of a character. Many Joker 2 theories try to explain how Gaga’s Harley Quinn will fit into Joker 2 – from the classic Arkham psychiatrist storyline from the comics to Harley being one of the Joker’s fans from the first movie. Regardless, how to balance those two points of view is one of Joker 2’s biggest challenges.
How Joker 2 Can Work Without Ditching Joker’s Twist
One interesting approach would be to have Harley and the Joker share similar delusions, perhaps with them having in-synch perceptions of the world around them. Another option is that Joker: Folie à Deux moves on from the unreliable narrator element and instead focuses on other aspects of Joker’s character. Finally, a surprising but promising twist would be to tell Joker 2’s story entirely from Harley Quinn’s perspective. This would make the Joker sequel rather different from the first film, and would also make Arthur Fleck’s role in Joker: Folie à Deux excitingly unpredictable.
