Part 2 of the film featuring the character Arthur Fleck, portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie à Deux, has just released its first trailer, quickly amassing nearly 19 million views. The plot continues the story from the first installment, focusing on Arthur Fleck’s life in Arkham Asylum. Here, he is set to encounter Harley Quinn, played by Lady Gaga—a woman equally as chaotic as himself. According to Screenrant, while the trailer does not reveal too much about the film’s content, netizens are actively discussing various theories about the storyline of this sequel.
1. Are the musical segments in the film just Arthur Fleck’s hallucinations?
Unlike the psychological horror approach of the first film, director Todd Phillips surprises audiences by deciding to transform Joker: Folie à Deux into a musical. From the trailer, viewers have been treated to scenes of Arthur Fleck and Harley Quinn dancing together. However, this direction has raised concerns among many fans about the plausibility and seriousness of the sequel’s storyline.
However, following the trailer, many viewers have expressed that the musical segments seem to be more like the fantasies of a mentally unstable person than actual events. This theory has gained traction as it suggests that the musical numbers in the film could resemble a Broadway-style production. Consequently, many fans believe that these sequences may not be real but merely the figments of Arthur Fleck or Harley Quinn’s imagination.
2. Will Joker: Folie à Deux alter Harley Quinn’s origin story?
In the original DC comic, Harley Quinn (whose real name is Harleen Quinzel) is a psychiatrist working at Arkham Asylum who becomes infatuated with the Joker. However, the trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux indicates that director Todd Phillips may have reimagined her character as someone with a more complex psychological profile, standing alongside Arthur Fleck.
