Speculation has been rampant about whether the upcoming Joker  sequel will or will not be a musical. Though Lady Gaga will be one of the leads, cinematographer Lawrence Sher insisted to an interviewer that “it’s not a musical per se, it just has music in it. The music is part of the film and the characters, but I don’t know if it’s a musical.”

Sher served as the cinematographer for the original Joker film in 2019 and will do the same for the upcoming Joker: Folie a Deux. He added, perhaps cryptically, that “yes, there is music. But there’s a lot of music in the first ‘Joker’ too. There’s like… there was actually like things that we didn’t do in the first Joker that to some extent are part of the DNA of the second one.”

To make his point, Sher referred to the scene in Joker involving Charlie Chaplin, when the Joker “has like a little music in him…you know, the dancing on the steps and all that kind of stuff.”

It now appears that Lady Gaga’s character Harley Quinn will indeed be singing a few songs, but the overall film will not be considered a musical as it is commonly understood.
Rumors about the film being a musical sprouted in April of 2023, when a video appeared online in which Lady Gaga was heard singing “We’re a Couple of Swells,” a song made famous by Fred Astaire and Judy Garland in the 1948 movie Easter Parade. Afterwards, Joker 2’s composter Hildu Guðnadóttir said in an interview with Comicbook.com that “there is going to be a lot of music in the film.”

Joker was a highly successful film after its release in 2019, grossing more than $1 billion and serving as the vehicle for Joaquin Phoenix’s win of an Oscar for best actor. Joker: Folie a Deux is again being directed by Todd Phillips from a screenplay he wrote with Scott Silver. It will also co-star Zazie Beetz, Catherine Keener, Brendan Gleeson, and Jacob Lofland.

The new film will have its theatrical premiere on October 4.

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