When Joker first hit theaters in 2019, its director Todd Phillips and its star Joaquin Phoenix repeatedly insisted that it was a standalone piece that wouldn’t lead into any sequels. They conceived the movie to offer audiences a refreshing counterpoint to all the universe-building that other modern comic book movies get bogged down in with a story that stands on its own. But Warner Bros. wants another $1 billion, so a sequel is in development.

Phillips initially said, “The movie’s not set up to [have] a sequel. We always pitched it as one movie, and that’s it.” However, he must’ve had a change of heart (or come up with a really cool story idea), because it’s since been reported that he’s signed a deal to co-write a sequel.

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A sequel to Joker will inherently ruin the original, because it’ll have to provide definitive answers to all the questions audiences have been pondering for the past two years. The first movie’s ambiguity works so well because it’s unclear how much of the movie actually happened – or if any of it really happened. But in order to follow it up with a sequel, Phillips will inevitably have to answer these questions.

Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck in Joker

The decision seems like a no-brainer on the studio’s end. Joker made $1 billion and there’s a good chance that a potential Joker 2 would make another $1 billion. But creatively, it doesn’t feel necessary. What more can be said about Arthur Fleck and his path to becoming the Joker? Now that he’s inspired a criminal uprising across Gotham City and the Waynes have been killed in the ensuing chaos, the logical next step would be the introduction of Batman. But the whole point of the Joker movie was to move away from his connection to the Bat and focus on his own personal life.

Phillips has previously expressed interest in a spin-off exploring the Batman of the Joker-verse: “It’s a beautiful Gotham... What was interesting to me about the inclusion of Batman in our movie was, ‘What kind of Batman does that Gotham make?’” Making the Joker sequel as a standalone Batman neo-noir set in Phillips’ Gotham – which is basically a recreation of Scorsese’s seedy, crime-ridden New York – would certainly avoid the risk of rehashing the original movie. But apart from taking place in the Joker movie’s slightly alternate Gotham, this wouldn’t be much of a sequel to Joker and would instead feel like a Batman reboot, which are already ten a penny.

To tie a Batman-centric Joker sequel closer to the Joker himself, Arthur Fleck could reappear as a much older criminal leader running Gotham’s underworld. A Bruce Wayne whose parents were murdered by Joker fanatics and who was harassed by the Clown Prince of Crime himself as a young boy would certainly make a unique Caped Crusader, and one with an even closer connection to the Joker than usual.

Ultimately, though, this would be a Batman movie as opposed to a Joker movie and we don’t need another Batman movie. Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck’s Batmen are both coming back in The Flash and Robert Pattinson is about to make his long-awaited debut as Bruce Wayne in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. The last thing the DCEU needs right now is yet another Batman, especially when there are so many beloved DC heroes who still need a solo movie, like Batgirl and Nightwing.

Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

If a Joker sequel is inevitable, it might as well be a proper sequel that builds on the story of Arthur Fleck. The first movie notably borrowed most of its characterization, plot points, and overall aesthetic from the Martin Scorsese masterpieces Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. Since the first movie ended with Arthur locked in Arkham Asylum, the second movie could build on that setup by borrowing from another ‘70s classic: Miloš Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Cuckoo’s Nest stars Jack Nicholson as Randle McMurphy, a convict who pleads insanity and gets sent to a psychiatric hospital ruled with an iron fist by the cruel, heartless Nurse Ratched, played by Louise Fletcher. Ratched is one of the most sinister and terrifying villains in movie history, and McMurphy embodies the anti-establishment tone of post-Watergate ‘70s cinema as he inspires his fellow patients to revolt against her. The Joker rallying his fellow inmates against a sadistic warden at Arkham could make for a delightfully dark thriller.

It’s unclear what the Joker sequel will entail. The fact that Phillips has taken two years to start working on a follow-up script suggests that he’s not sequelizing Joker for the sake of it and has waited until he has a strong enough idea for the story. Still, Phillips’ track record with sequels – The Hangover Parts II and III – leaves a lot to be desired, so take the Joker sequel news with a pinch of salt.

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