Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix Are a Disturbing Cabaret Act in Joker: Folie à Deux

Warner Bros.

The Joker and Harley Quinn are all set to paint Gotham City a dark, arterial red in the new trailer for Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux, a film that dares ask the question: “What if the world’s most depressed bisexual got groomed into performing a nightclub act with a homicidal fugitive from the Ringling Brothers?”

Warner Brothers released the first Folie à Deux trailer late Tuesday, teasing some of the film’s key plot threads. Picking up after the dramatic conclusion of 2019’s Joker, the trailer finds Arthur “Joker” Fleck (Phoenix) locked away in Arkham Asylum for the various murders he’s already committed — but not for long. Fleck runs into Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga), a fellow inmate, and the two partner up and start a lounge act as “Joker and Harley.” But not everything in life is smoldering cigarettes and equally smoky cabaret. The trailer also shows Fleck running down a city street with several lookalike Jokers in hot pursuit, and a brief glimpse of Gaga as Harley pulling a pistol on her clown-faced beau in a sign their bond may not be unbreakable.

If there’s one thing we know about Gaga, it’s that she commands the spotlight everywhere she goes, and her role in Folie à Deux looks to be no different. Still, fans of DC Comics’ Harley Quinn who are more familiar with the character from Margot Robbie’s film portrayals or her modern comic book appearances may be a bit disappointed by the version we see in this trailer. Quinn’s fan-favorite romantic relationship with fellow femme fatale Poison Ivy isn’t part of this film; instead, Phillips seems to be drawing on the character’s origins in Batman: The Animated Series, in which Quinn debuted as a lovesick (and abused) costumed henchwoman. (Also absent is Quinn’s original backstory, which positioned her as a psychiatrist the Joker manipulated into joining his crime sprees.) Arguably, however, this Quinn could still be “bi girls hiding in bad relationships” representation, so if that feels like a callout on you specifically, we hope the popcorn is fresh, queen.

“I really needed to mythologize my life to fully pick it apart.”

Nevertheless, there’s plenty of snazzy-looking cinematography on display, and fans of Phillips’ original Joker will find cause for excitement. If you enjoyed that infinitely memeable scene of Phoenix dancing his way down NYC’s West 167th Street stairs, you might like this movie’s remix as he and Gaga kick-step down some courthouse steps following Joker’s acquittal. For fans of niche LGBTQ+ TV characters, Folie à Deux will also see the return of Zazie Beetz as Sophie Dumond, fresh off the actor’s turn as a lesbian postal inspector in the Max miniseries Full Circle.

Joker: Folie à Deux releases in theaters October 4. If you can’t wait that long for your Joker movie fix — and if you need it to be at least 20% queerer — then you’re in luck: trans filmmaker Vera Drew’s The People’s Joker screens in select theaters across the U.S. over the next few months, following legal uncertainty over the parody film’s use of Warner Bros. intellectual property. It’s what we deserve, and frankly, we’re tired of pretending it’s not.

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