Joker Director Reveals A-List Folie À Deux Cameo That Never Was

Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie À Deux
Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie À Deux Warner Bros

This article contains spoilers for Joker: Folie À Deux.

Joker director Todd Phillips has admitted he had big plans for an A-list cameo in the sequel Folie À Deux, but wasn’t able to make it work.

Anyone who’s already seen the divisive film will know it makes several references to a supposedly “terrible” TV movie based on Arthur Fleck’s story.

Speaking to IGN, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker revealed he did intend to include snippets of this in Folie À Deux, which would have seen Justin Theroux (who played fictitious actor Ethan Chase in the first Joker movie) playing Arthur in the film-within-a-film.

However, he claimed that time restraints meant this couldn’t go ahead.

Justin Theroux
Justin Theroux via Associated Press

Asked about who would play Arthur in the TV movie, Todd explained: “Well, Justin Theroux of course. In fact, I talked to Justin about it.

“We were going to shoot a trailer at one point. We just ran out of time. Yes, [as] ‘Ethan Chase’, the actor from the first movie.”

Lady Gaga, Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix in London
Lady Gaga, Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix in London via Associated Press

When Folie À Deux premiered at the Venice Film Festival last month, it initially received a somewhat mixed response, although that his skewed more negatively since more critics have seen the film.

Since its release, Todd has also spoken out about the meaning behind the Joker: Folie À Deux ending, revealing it was partly a response to one criticism of the first movie.

He’s also set the record straight on whether he’d be up for directing a third Joker film, or a stand-alone Harley Quinn project.

Joker: Folie À Deux is in cinemas now.

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