'Joker' Sequel Is In The Works With Warner Bros. | 22 Words

It's been over a month since the Joker movie hit theatre screens - and it hasn't spent a single day out of the limelight.

The psychological thriller details the origin story of Batman's arch-nemesis, The Joker, and how he became the notorious villain he is. The movie was an instant box office success - becoming the highest-grossing R-Rated movie of all time and the first R-Rated movie to hit 1 billion dollars.

It's safe to say that while the movie has had its fair share of criticism, it's racked in some pretty big bucks. So it's no surprise that Warner Bros has announced that the movie has been picked up for a sequel and it's already in the works.

Keep reading to get all the details on the exciting announcement.

 

The Joker is one of the most infamous villains in the comic book world.

The supervillain made his debut in the Batman comic books in 1940 and has since become one of the most notorious faces of the franchise.

He was originally meant to be killed off during his initial appearance.

But plans changed and he stuck around to become Batman's archenemy.

He was most famously brought to life by Heath Ledger in 2008.

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 The Dark Night was a box office smash hit, receiving rave reviews and grossing over a staggering $1 billion in revenue.

The movies the Joker appears in seem to garner worldwide success.

Seems fans of the franchise can't get enough of the psychopathic anti-hero.

So, when it was annouced he was getting a movie of his own...

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 ...fans were elated. In fact, there was so much buzz around its release that the movie bagged the Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival in September.

This time, the infamous criminal mastermind is portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix.

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 Speaking to Ladbible, the Oscar-nominated actor explained: "I thought it was important for it to be its own thing, to be its own interpretation. What's interesting about this character is that everybody can interpret it however they want.
"Even with this film, I think the audience gets to interpret the character and what drives him, in a way that I think is unique for a lot of films. I mean it really asks the audience to participate, and I think that's interesting."

The movie hit screens on October 4th.

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 Directed by Todd Phillips, Joker tells the origin story of, you guessed it...the Joker (or Arthur Fleck as he's known as in the movie), and how he evolves into the criminal mastermind we all know him as.

Arthur Fleck is a lonely, failed comedian.

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 Set in 1981, Fleck, who is working as a party clown, lives with his mother in Gotham City - a town full of crime and unemployment.

Fleck also has a neurological disorder that causes him to laugh at inappropriate times.

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 Due to this, he often lands himself in bad situations. And of course, he finds himself on a huge downward spiral.

He becomes an outcast of society.

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 Fleck is isolated, bullied, and lonely.

The movie chronicles his descent into madness.

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 Soon enough, Fleck's life becomes rife with out-of-control into delusions, violence, and anarchy and thus, the clown-faced criminal is born.

The movie has solicited some extreme reactions.

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 From rave reviews to full-blown outrage, the dark movie debuted to extremely mixed emotions.

The movie has already broken a major record...

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 Over its first weekend alone it raked in an eye-watering $93.5 million at the U.S. box office - although we aren't entirely surprised, given the huge anticipation in the lead up to its release.

But given its blatantly dark and, at times, sensitive themes, it was bound to whip up some kind of controversy.

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 And it sure didn't disappoint, with many people slamming the movie for its representation of mental health and "glamorization" of violence.

Theatre-goers have also been left outraged by a particular song used in the movie...

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 Convicted pedophile, Gary Glitter's 1972 "Rock and Roll Part 2" is used in one scene. Glitter was jailed in 2015 for a number of sexual assault offenses, including one count of raping a 13-year-old girl, so it's no wonder so many viewers were disgusted.

The movie is apparently so disturbing, it has been leaving viewers unable to continue watching.

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 Several people took to Twitter to call out the "horrible" movie, saying how they've been left terrified while watching.

It seems to have rattled many people...

While some have praised the movie for shedding light on the struggles of living with a mental illness, others didn't agree and think the film's portrayal did more harm than good.

Several have been saying the movie should have come with a trigger warning.

Like this user, who cited the graphic shooting as one of the main reasons why they feel a trigger warning should have been placed at the start of the movie.

Other's cut the movie more slack.

While many admitted that the movie was without a doubt dark and disturbing, some say Joaquin Phoenix's performance deserved an Oscar. And it seems as if the news might be on the brink of coming true... three cheers for Joaquin Phoenix!

In our humble opinion, we say you give that man an Oscar right now.

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 It's not even been a week since the movie hit the big-screens but it has already managed to crawl its way into the top 10 films of all time. According to IMDb rankings, Joker is now considered one of the best movies to ever exist coming in at 9.

Formerly, the only other comic book movie to make it into the rankings was...

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 The Dark Knight, which fell into the top 5. With over 2 million ratings ranking the film at 9/10 stars, it's going to take some beating.

But Joker is slowly pushing its way into the top-tier.

The film currently stands at an 8.8 rating standard, with many Pheonix fans hoping that it will continue sneaking up until it falls into the top 5 films of all time.

But the film has some pretty stiff competition.

Swimming around the top end of the ratings are classics like Pulp Fiction and The Godfather, so it seems like the chances of it ranking amongst the elite squad in cinema history is very narrow. And the ranking for popular films slowly dies out as the hype dies, so if that happens, the chances are at zero. But we can still hope, right?

A film of such cinematic genius deserves to receive an accolade.

Let's be honest, if a film has the power to make you feel any kind of extreme emotion, such as love, hate, disgust, sadness, happiness, whatever it may be, it has done its job as an art form. And, at the moment, Joker is doing just that.

Weeks ago the Joker broke another major record.

Yes that's right. Joker just kept on getting bigger and bigger with every passing week. And a month ago news emerged that Joker had become the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time.

It overtook Deadpool.

2016’s Deadpool, which introduced Ryan Reynolds’ classic anti-hero, was the original titleholder after making a huge $783m at the worldwide box office.

And the records kept on coming...

After nearly seven weeks since it was first released, Joker hit ten figures, making it the first R-Rated film to do so at the box office.

Not many films have hit over a billion.

During the box office, only a small number of films have hit the one billion dollar mark. Recent additions include Aquaman and SpiderMan: Far From Home.

Without help from China.

Amazingly, Joker has achieved this incredible feat despite not being shown in China. If it manages to surpass Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight then it'll be the biggest film ever not to be shown in China.

Joaquin Phoenix is joint-favorite to win Best Actor at the Oscars.

The Oscars aren't too far away at all - and Joaquin Phoenix is currently joint-favorite to pick up the big award and join the Best Actors club. Phoenix has already been nominated twice for the exclusive award after his role as an alcoholic in The Master and as Johnny Cash in Walk The Line. Adam Driver is his main competition for the award at the minute after his unbelievable performance in Marriage Story.

As one of the most successful films of the year, the latest announcement comes as no surprise...

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 According to the Hollywood Reporter, a Joker 2 is already in the works at Warner Bros.

Todd Phillips will be returning to the director's chair.

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 And Joaquin Phoenix will be whipping out his clown makeup once more as he has reportedly signed on for the sequel (sorry, Jared Leto).

And it looks like there may be more than one sequel in the piping line.

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 According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Warners has sequel options in place for Joker star Joaquin Phoenix, who has emerged as a strong contender in the Oscar best actor race." The plural in "options" would suggest more than one, right?

As of now, there are no further details on the sequel.

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 And both the studio and Phillips’ reps at CAA declined to comment.

If for some reason, you still haven't watched Joker, watch the full trailer below:

But, if the thought of watching the dark thriller isn't really your style, keep scrolling to find something a little different.