Director Todd Phillips wished his 644,000 Instagram users a Merry Christmas by sharing two promotional images from Joker: Folie à Deux starring Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix.
In a shot from the highly anticipated comic book film, the 37-year-old superstar, who plays Harley Quinn, was seen gazing adoringly at the 49-year-old Oscar winner.
While the actor wore his signature Joker makeup and red suit, the Grammy winner appeared to be Dr. Harleen Quinzel, a promising psychologist who falls in love with the Joker during her internship at Arkham Asylum in Gotham City.
“I wish everyone a happy holiday and a happy new year.” “Oct. 2024,” Phillips, 53, captioned the slideshow.
Sneak peek: Director Todd Phillips wished his 644,000 Instagram users a Merry Christmas by sharing two promotional images from “Joker 2” starring Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix
The second photo showed Phoenix looking dejected alone in a prison cell.
Little is currently known about Joker: Folie à Deux, which is a sequel to Phillips' Oscar-winning film Joker, which was released in theaters on October 4, 2019.
The upcoming sequel is scheduled to appear exactly five years after its predecessor's theatrical release.
Phoenix will return as the titular villain, while Lady Gaga has joined the cast as the crazy Harley Quinn.
Gaga reportedly used a rather interesting technique on the set of the film when she took on the role of the villain.
Cinematographer Larry Sher revealed on the TV podcast The Trenches that Gaga wanted to be called “Lee” on set.
Sher also served as cinematographer for the 2019 film Joker, which won Phoenix his Oscar for Best Actor, confirming that he was “100% in character the entire time.”
He added that Phoenix came up to him on the second day of filming and apologized: “For being kind of weird, I just have to stay (in the role).”
The second photo showed Phoenix looking dejected alone in a prison cell
Sher said he told him not to worry at all and just do his thing, but with Stefani he had never met her before the project and it was completely different.
“I feel like I never really met her, not even during the makeup hair test,” Sher began on the podcast.
“Because again, maybe my philosophy is to never try to encroach on their space,” Sher clarified.
“And then I remember for about a week I was like, 'God, I feel like we're disconnected, not even disconnected.' We’re like opposites,” Sher said.
“And I would say to my crew, ‘Jesus, I can’t do it. I feel like she either hates me or we hate each other or there's something weird going on here,'” Sher admitted.
The cameraman added that he barely said anything to her other than “little things” once he realized she wanted a different name.
“Then at one point the AD (assistant director) said, 'Oh, you know Stef would love it if you just called her Lee on set,'” Sher explained.
“And I was like, 'Oh, 100%.' And then I literally said the next thing I said was something from Lee, and it was like everything changed.”
Coming out next year: Little is currently known about “Joker: Folie à Deux,” the sequel to Phillips' Oscar-winning film “Joker,” which was released in theaters on October 4, 2019
Star-studded cast: Phoenix will return as the titular villain, while Lady Gaga has joined the cast as the crazy Harley Quinn (seen in April 2023)
“From that point on, it was like our entire connection changed. I thought, “Okay, cool, that’s all I need to know.”
He added that as the film progressed, their connection “just grew over the course of the film and I think by the end we felt connected in the sense that we had done this thing together that was joyful and fulfilling.” “
Very little is known about the story, although it was revealed in late 2019 that Arthur Fleck/Joker ended up in Arkham Asylum, where psychiatrist Harleen Frances Quinzel first meets Joker in her comic origin story.
Quinn is assigned to treat Joker, but instead she falls in love with him and becomes his villainous accomplice and is transformed into Harley Quinn.