Joaquin Phoenix Made 'Joker' Sequel Posters Inserting Joker Into Films Like 'Rosemary's Baby' And 'Yentl'

Joker 2 has not yet been officially announced, but it seems like an inevitability at this point. The first film is already the most successful R-rated movie of all time, and though star Joaquin Phoenix admits that part of the attraction to making the first movie was that it was a "one-off," he started getting sequel fever only a couple of weeks into filming.

In a recent interview, Phoenix said that he asked the on-set photographer to shoot him in character so they could mock up fake sequel posters to convince director Todd Phillips that Joker could conceivably be inserted into several different types of films. Some of the movies they chose to put Joker into are...well, let's just say unexpected.

It was clear from the moment Joker was announced that the movie would be an homage to the films of Martin Scorsese, using Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy as major touchstones. But Phoenix thinks a Joker sequel doesn't have to repeat those same stylistic influences – he has some wackier ideas in mind.

Speaking with The L.A. Times (via Indiewire), the actor explained that he started to feel an itch to further explore the character of Arthur Fleck early into making the first film:

"Long before the release or before we had any idea if it would be successful, we talked about sequels," Phoenix said. "In the second or third week of shooting, I was like, 'Todd, can you start working on a sequel? There's way too much to explore.' It was kind of in jest — but not really."

But he wasn't content to simply float that half-joke and leave it hanging in the air. He and the on-set photographer took things a step further.

"I basically said, 'You could take this character and put him in any movie,'" Phoenix said. "So I did a photo shoot with the on-set photographer and we made posters where I photoshopped Joker into 10 classic movies: 'Rosemary's Baby,' 'Raging Bull,' 'Yentl.' If you see it, you're like, 'Yeah, I'd watch that movie.' 'Yentl' with Joker? That would be amazing!"

He has a point, folks: Yentl, the 1983 Barbra Streisand romance about a woman who dresses like a man in order to be educated in the Jewish faith, would indeed be "amazing" if the Mother Effing Joker were inserted into that story. That's just undeniable. Raging Bull seems relatively uninspired (more Scorsese?), but a Joker horror movie in the vein of Rosemary's Baby could be interesting. Now I'm desperate to know what those other classic movies were.

One thing's for sure: when a sequel does get announced, don't expect Arthur Fleck to shift from the troubled failed stand-up we saw in the first movie to a criminal mastermind capable of going toe to toe with Batman. As Phoenix tells it:

"We've only talked about the fact that if we ever did one — and I'm not saying we are because right now we're not — it couldn't just be this wild and crazy movie about the 'Clown Prince of Crime.' That just doesn't interest us. It would have to have some thematic resonance in a similar way that this does."

Joker is still in theaters, and will almost certainly be a part of the Oscar conversation for the next few months.