Why Joker 2 Is a Musical Movie Explained by Director Todd Phillips

Joker 2 takes a turn for the melodic following its ‘Taxi Driver’-esque first film.

To the shock of many, Joker 2 (aka Joker: Folie à Deux) is a musical unlike the first movie.

Director Todd Phillips and star Joaquin Phoenix return to their billion-dollar DC franchise, adding mega-talents like Lady Gaga to the Joker 2 cast.

While everything looked primed for more success, Joker 2 has not gotten off on the right financial foot. Instead of tackling a Taxi Driver-esque gritty drama like the first film, Folie à Deux changed things up, turning the movie into a jukebox musical filled with classic tunes from the 1940s and ’50s.

Why Is Joker 2 a Musical?

It might be confusing to find out that Joker 2 is a movie musical, but there has been some justification for the decision.

Joker: Folie à Deux, which is in theaters now, centers yet again on Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck, this time as he is admitted to Arkham Asylum and put on trial for his actions in the first Joker film.

As part of his new surroundings and spot in the public eye, he crosses paths with Lady Gaga’s Harleen “Lee” Quinzel. The two quickly fall in love and, for the rest of the movie, hop in and out of Arthur’s personal delusions which feature a string of musical numbers like “If My Friends Could See Me Now” from Sweet Charity.

This choice for the movie to center so closely on music has caused quite a stir among fans, as many had hoped the sequel would be another Joker and not upset the apple cart in any significant way.

According to director Todd Phillips, this move to make the movie a musical was part of an active effort to “top [themselves]” and do something “dangerous” with the movie sequel (via Variety):

“The question became, ‘how can we top ourselves?’ And you can only do that if you do something dangerous. But there were days on set where you’d look around and think, ‘Holy fucking shit! What did we do?'”

He said most of the music in the movie should be seen as dialogue by the audiences, simply being Phoenix’s Arthur character not having the words he wants to say, so “he sings them instead:”

“Most of the music in the movie is really just dialogue. It’s just Arthur not having the words to say what he wants to say, so he sings them instead.”

That is not to say the movie’s musical narrative trimmings can (and should) be compared to Broadway hits like Wicked or In the Heights, though, according to Phillips.

“I just don’t want people to think that it’s like In the Heights,” Phillips added, saying that most of these musical numbers exist in Arthur’s head as opposed to this amped-up version of reality where people just burst into song on the streets:

“I just don’t want people to think that it’s like ‘In the Heights,’ where the lady in the bodega starts to sing and they take it out onto the street, and the police are dancing. No disrespect, because I loved ‘In the Heights.'”

Star Lady Gaga would even say the movie is not a musical at all, just one that features songs.

Speaking to People Magazine at the Venice Film Festival in October 2024, Gaga remarked, “I wouldn’t necessarily say that this is actually a musical.” She, like Phillips, sees the musical elements as an extension of the dialogue, helping characters express feelings that do not have the words to say:

“I wouldn’t necessarily say that this is actually a musical. The way that music is used is to give the characters a way to express what they need to say because the scene and just the dialogue is not enough.”

Phillips agreed with Gaga’s sentiment, also telling the press he is not sure ‘musical’ is the right word to describe the film.

He told The Wrap in September 2024 that with most musicals, “you walk out of them, [and] you feel a lot better than you did when you walked into them,” but that is not the case with Joker 2:

“The musicals I tend to love, or musicals in general, when you walk out of them, you feel a lot better than you did when you walked into them. And oftentimes, you find yourself whistling the music from the musical that you just saw. And I, I guess I didn’t want to mislead people because I don’t know that you leave this movie feeling better than you did when you walked in. So I always think the term ‘musical’ has a very, like, positive slant to it. So in some respects, that was my kind of reticence of using the term.”

In fact, during production, Phillips said that the crew “never really talked about” Joker 2 being a musical and that, in his mind, the movie does not stray too far from the essence of the original film.

Joker: Folie à Deux is playing in theaters worldwide.