10 Recently Announced Movies That Will Probably Never Happen
2. Joker 2
When a superhero movie - or rather, supervillain movie - grosses over $1 billion worldwide, gets 11 Oscars nominations, and wins two of them (including Best Actor), a sequel shouldn't be surprising.
Though Joker was originally designed as a one-off standalone film, money and awards talk, and so both writer-director Todd Phillips and Oscar-winning star Joaquin Phoenix have since talked-up the possibility of a sequel if they could crack a worthwhile story.
After more than 18 months of rumours about a sequel, in May 2021 The Hollywood Reporter claimed that Joker 2 was formally in development, with Phillips later attached to pen the script.
Many fans excitedly took that report at face value, but while recently promoting his new film C'mon C'mon, Phoenix cast doubt on Joker 2 being a sure thing. He said:
"I dunno. From when we were shooting, we started to - you know, uhh, this is an interesting guy. There are some things we could do with this guy and could [explore] further. But as to whether we actually will? I don't know."
Given Phoenix's famous aversion to franchise roles - he previously turned down Doctor Strange - it wouldn't be remotely surprising if Joker 2 simply languished in development hell and never came together.
Phoenix is incredibly in-demand and basically has his pick of exciting auteur directors to work with, so he may not wish to repeat himself and risk undermining the most acclaimed role of his career.