New 'Joker Folie À Deux' Trailer Makes Joker And Harley Sing

By Andrew Sanford | Film | July 23, 2024 |

By Andrew Sanford | Film | July 23, 2024 |

Movie studios have an aversion to promoting movie musicals as movie musicals. This has been an issue for as long as I can remember. I’m sure there is some test audience data that they assume reflects every human being on Earth. That data likely explains that people lose interest in a film when the characters start singing. However, instead of not making musicals (which would be dumb), studios tend to hide the musicality of a movie.

This tactic makes for some truly strange trailers. You will see characters dancing and opening their mouths like they’re singing. You won’t hear any musical numbers from the movie. Instead, it will be stock songs to give the illusion that, perhaps, the movie isn’t a musical but is a fun time. Then, audiences attend the film and are distraught to learn that they were, essentially, tricked.

Recent movies like Wonka and Mean Girls The Musical fell victim to this trend. I just want to reiterate that last example. A film with “The Musical” in the title was marketed as if it wasn’t a musical or, at the very least, didn’t use any of its own music for promotion. Audiences did not handle it well. Now, it looks as though Warner Brothers Discovery might make the same mistake.

Joker Folie À Deux, the sequel to the 2019 Joaquin Phoenix-starring Joker, is a musical. It is a jukebox musical, yes, but a musical nonetheless. There will be singing and dancing in the follow-up to a film that angry dweebs and dufuses have based their whole personalities around. They may not know that if they watch the new trailer. Yes, Lady Gaga is in the movie, but the trailer does not present something that looks like a musical.

They tease the musicality of the film. We do see characters singing. There is a moment where Joker and Harley Quinn sing to each other! But, they are all muted and could be chalked up to weirdness before anything else. The response to this film will be intriguing. Last time, people thought its anarchistic messaging may cause violence. Now that might happen when a bunch of neckbeards have to watch people grapevine.