10 Recent Movies That Wasted INCREDIBLE Casts

To call the discourse surrounding Joker: Folie à Deux exhausting is quite the understatement, so let's just say that Todd Phillips' musical sequel to his billion-dollar 2019 original left most critics and audiences scratching their heads.

On paper, the Joker sequel had everything it needed to be a success - almost all behind-the-camera personnel from the first film returning, alongside a firecracker new cast joining star Joaquin Phoenix.

First and foremost, Lady Gaga was quite perfectly cast as Harleen Quinzell (aka Harley Quinn), while the supporting roster was rounded out by Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Steve Coogan, Harry Lawtey, and Ken Leung, with Zazie Beetz and Leigh Gill briefly reprising their roles from the first film.

It is nothing short of an embarrassment of riches, and yet, while Phoenix and Gaga certainly do their level-best with the material, said material places a low ceiling on their potential, as well as that of the wider cast.

Phillips clearly wanted to make anything but a conventional Joker sequel, but this muddled mess of half-hearted musical and scornful repudiation of its own fandom ensured Joker: Folie à Deux felt more like a mega-budget feat of trolling than an honest-to-God movie.