This article contains spoilers for Joker: Folie À Deux.
Joker director Todd Phillips has shut down speculation about the future of the franchise.
The Oscar-nominated filmmaker helmed both Joker and its critically-derided musical follow-up Folie À Deux, which is in cinemas now.
Anyone who’s now seen the sequel will understand why it’s unlikely that Joaquin Phoenix will be reprising his role as Arthur Fleck for a third film, although Lady Gaga has previously expressed interest in playing her Harley Quinn character in a future project.
“I definitely don’t feel done with Lee as a character,” the Bad Romance singer said last week. “She’s got so much to say. What an interesting gal.”
However, Todd has now ruled this out as a possibility.
“It’s not really where this movie is headed for me,” he told The Hollywood Reporter, when asked about the potential for a third film in some capacity. “I feel like my time in the DC Universe was these two films.”
Todd made a similar claim in an interview with Variety published over the summer, in which he insisted: “It was fun to play in this sort of sandbox for two movies, but I think we’ve said what we wanted to say in this world.”
As well as Joaquin and Gaga, Folie À Deux features the return of several key characters from the first Joker movie, as well as introducing new characters played by Catherine Keener, Brendan Gleeson and Steve Coogan.
Industry actor Harry Lawtey also joins the cast, putting a new take on the key Gotham City figure Harvey Dent, otherwise known as the Batman villain Two Face.