Talk about a “bad romance.”
Lady Gaga is making her long-awaited debut as Harley Quinn alongside Joaquin Phoenix’s reprisal of his Oscar-winning Joker in the first trailer for “Joker: Folie à Deux” released on Tuesday.
The teaser trailer begins with Phoenix’s cuffed and plain-faced Joker – whose name is Arthur Fleck – being escorted through a facility he’s being held in. As he walks through the corridor, his eyes catch Quinn’s as she stands in what appears to be a choir room.
“I’m nobody,” Gaga’s Quinn later says, as she is seen miming a gun to her head and pulling the trigger. “I haven’t done anything with my life like you have.”
The clip goes on to show sequences of the villainously-in-love pair waltzing around with each other on the street, dodging explosions, running from mobs and kissing each other through Fleck’s jail cell, all backed by a haunting rendition of the classic song “What the World Needs Now is Love.”
“I’ll tell you what’s changed,” Fleck says at one point. “I’m not alone anymore.”
In DC Comics lore, the Joker and Harley Quinn have often been each other’s love interests, with Quinn introduced as the villain’s therapist in Arkham Asylum. (DC is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which also owns CNN.)
Details of how director Todd Phillips will present these legacy characters in his sequel have yet to be released, but based on how he treated the Joker in the hit 2019 film, it’s safe to say “Folie” will represent a departure from what the comics contain.
“Folie” also stars Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener and Zazie Beetz as Fleck’s neighbor Sophie.
The billion dollar-grossing movie “Joker” won two Oscars in 2020, including one for Phoenix for best actor.
“Joker: Folie à Deux” will premiere in theaters on October 4.
