Joker Sequel is on the Way at Warner Brothers

Todd Phillips might have intended Joker to be a standalone movie, but it looks like the film's commercial and critical success has Warner Brothers pushing for a sequel.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Brothers has decided to move forward with a Joker sequel. The studio has decided to bring back Phillips as the new movie's director and co-writer while Scott Silver, the screenwriter of the first Joker, is also set to return to write the sequel.

Joaquin Phoenix is also expected to return to reprise his role as Arthur Fleck.

While this report might seem a bit surprising considering Phillips' stance on creating a franchise, we're not entirely shocked that Warner Brothers would want a sequel for Joker. The film has become one of DC's most successful endeavors. Moving past $1 billion at the global box office, the film has become one of the franchise's highest-earning entries.

Now that Joker has made its mark in the DCEU, Phillips has reportedly met with Warner Brothers Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich to ask permission to develop an entire franchise based on the origin stories of various DC villains. The director asked for access to the entirety of DC's library of villains for the project.

Though the filmmaker didn't really get access to the entire library, he was given one or two characters to develop solo movies for. We aren't sure what place Arthur Fleck might have in these projects, but it seems like WB wants Joker to have its own follow-up film, so we expect to see Phoenix wearing his make-up again.

Joker is currently screening in cinemas.

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