Zazie Beetz is in talks to reprise her role of Sophie Dumond in Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux, a sequel to the 2019 hit, Joker. Joker: Folie à Deux is based on characters from DC Comics and will navigate Arthur Fleck’s journey as an anarchic villain after being committed to Arkham Asylum in the first film. Amid the emotional turmoil he goes through in Joker, Arthur finds solace and love in his neighbor Sophie Dumond who reciprocates his feelings. However, in a terrifying turn of events, we later discover that Arthur’s relationship with Sophie was just a figment of his imagination. They never really met each other.
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Deadline has reported that Beetz is set to reprise her role in the upcoming sequel. The shocking revelation symbolized Arthur’s complete mind shatter and emotional breakdown, eventually leading his mental health issues to take over the last ounce of his sanity. Todd Phillips’ Joker was full of ambiguous plot points. Despite a derivation of DC’s extended lore about the character, the film kept things general without spurring out a comic book and pop-culture vibes. One of these ambiguous points was Sophie’s character arc.
After revealing that Arthur had merely imagined his relationship with Sophie, we see him visiting her apartment, making a gesture of pointing a gun at his head. We don’t see Sophie after this scene as Joker heads on to a psychotic and murderous trail of avenging his disrepute and insult on Murray Franklin’s show. The responses to the film concerning Beetz’s character were divisive. While many thought that Arthur would have killed her, there were who supported the fact that she survived as she had never done anything wrong to Arthur. Beetz herself also believed that Sophie made it without any harm.
Joker: Folie à Deux Will Be a Musical
Todd Phillips has revealed that the sequel to his highest-grossing R-Rated film would be a musical. Actress Zazie Beetz has stated that it would be wonderful to portray depressive emotions of pain and mental suffering through music and dance. She added that such an idea further relates to the character traits of the Joker.
Yeah, in my mind, she lives because she never actively wronged Arthur. His victims in the film were generally people that pointedly hurt him. Even within the horror of his realization around his own state of mind, he acknowledges that she’s more of a bystander to his situation than an actor to his situation. So, to me, it made sense that she wouldn’t be harmed by him because his harm was intentional towards certain people and then society at large, which he also felt wronged by in a way. So in my mind, she makes it out unscathed, at least physically.
Joker: Folie à Deux is set to release on October 4, 2024. The film’s title loosely translates to ‘shared madness’ or ‘madness for two.’ The film will also star Lady Gaga essaying the role of Joker’s psychiatrist-turned-girlfriend, Harleen Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn. The story would likely take place in Arkham Asylum, where Joker manipulates Harley into a toxic relationship, leading her on the same path as his.
It would be interesting to see how Sophie falls into place in this new chaotic partnership and how Todd Phillips converts his Academy Award-winning movie into its own cinematic continuity.
