The trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux raises questions about the presence of musical elements in the film, with rumors of 15 known songs. Although director Todd Phillips has played down these rumors, suggesting that music is just one element of the film, the trailer does highlight dance scenes and music. The marketing strategy of downplaying the musical nature of the film may be an attempt to attract a wider audience, since musical films are not so popular. Viewers will have to wait for more information to find out if Joker: Folie à Deux is indeed a full-blown musical.
Summary
The trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux downplays an important aspect of the Joker sequence that is an integral part of the film. Director Todd Phillips and Warner Bros. may be intentionally keeping this element of the film a mystery. Audiences may need to wait for more footage to fully understand the extent of this element in Joker: Folie à Deux.
Audiences have just had a sneak peek at the next DC movie, Joker: Folie à Deux, and although it has answered some questions about the movie's setting, one important element remains a mystery. That's not too shocking, the trailers for Joker were also somewhat enigmatic and did their best not to reveal too much. If the first film is any indication, everything seen in the trailer should be taken with a grain of salt, as these scenes could have a very different context in the final film.
The trailer for The Joker: Folie à Deux revealed a change in the origin story of Lady Gaga's Harley Quinn and some hints about what Arthur's life is like behind bars. It also seemed to indicate that the movie would lean even more heavily on dream sequences and fantasy, which probably explains the movie's musical numbers. However, the musical number in the trailer raises a question that DC doesn't seem ready to answer yet, at least not in the trailer.
The Joker 2 trailer is hiding the extent to which it's a musical
Joker: Folie à Deux will supposedly feature many musical numbers
It has been reported that Joker: Folie à Deux will be a jukebox musical, featuring 15 well-known songs. Watching the trailer, however, this is not so clear. Although a cover of Jackie DeShannon's "What the World Needs Now is Love" is playing throughout the trailer, this doesn't necessarily mean that Joker: Folie à Deux is a musical. After all, the original Joker trailer also featured music and dancing prominently, but the movie wasn't a full-blown musical like its sequel will be.
It would almost seem that the trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux is intentionally keeping the fact that the movie is a musical hidden from audiences who have only seen the trailer but don't follow the news about the movie. This may seem an odd choice, but it actually has a fairly strong recent precedent. Warner Bros. used this same tactic with another recent film and may be doing the same with the Joker sequel.
Why the Joker 2 trailer is hiding the fact that it's essentially a musical
Joker: the trailer for Folie à Deux didn't show many explicit musical numbers
Warner Bros. Discovery recently released the musical Wonka, starring Timothée Chalamet. However, the ads for the film, similar to the trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux, downplayed the extent to which the film was a musical. It's not just WBD that's doing this. The 2024 film Mean Girls was an adaptation of the stage musical, but kept the musical elements out of the trailers. This could easily have led people to believe that it was simply a remake of the original 2004 movie, Mean Girls, rather than a musical.
The Joker sequel will apparently have a major change of genre and tone.
One possible reason for this could be that musical films are not as popular as they used to be. Studios may be wanting to appeal to audiences by downplaying the musical elements of their films and relying on positive word of mouth to get a sustained return at the box office. This may be especially true for Joker: Folie à Deux, since a jukebox musical may not be what fans of the first film expect from the Joker sequel. Someone looking for another dark vision of the iconic Batman villain may be unhappy to realize that the Joker sequel will apparently have a major genre and tone shift.
Director Todd Phillips is already downplaying the musical element of Joker 2
Todd Phillips directed Joker and Joker: Folie à Deux
It's not just the trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux that downplays the film's musical elements. Director Todd Phillips recently tried to distance the film from being labeled a musical when asked about it at CinemaCon 2024. According to THRPhillips said about Joker: Folie à Deux being a musical:
We've never talked about it like this. It's a movie where music is an essential element.
Phillips' comments would make sense if Joker: Folie à Deux was simply using music as a backdrop, as the first movie did. However, if the movie really does plan to have 15 musical numbers, this looks much more like a traditional musical. If all the stylized scenes in the trailer of Joker and Harley dancing or singing are musical numbers, then this is certainly a big part of the film.
It's unclear at this point whether the marketing for Joker: Folie à Deux is simply trying to downplay the musical elements of the film, or whether the film is less musical than previously thought. It seems that Phillips and the trailer would prefer audiences not to consider the movie a full-blown musical. For now, it looks like audiences will have to wait for more footage from Joker: Folie à Deux to see if this first trailer is simply trying to hide the musical elements of the film.
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