Joker 2 director Todd Phillips refused to work with James Gunn on failed sequel

Days after Joker: Folie à Deux flopped at the box office opening in a dismal $37 million domestically and earning a “D’ CinemaScore, the tea is starting to spill regarding the apparent tensions that unfolded behind the scenes between director Todd Phillips and the DC brass. 

As DC fans know, Joker: Folie à Deux was one of the few holdover projects that was in development prior to James Gunn and Peter Safran taking over as the heads of DC Studios. After the success of the first Joker film which grossed $1.1 billion on a $60 million budget, it was a no-brainer for the new studio heads to proceed with the sequel which they later confirmed would be part of its Elseworlds banner, set outside the connected DC Universe. 

While Gunn has been a vocal supporter of the film since the beginning of his time at DC, it seems Phillips wanted absolutely nothing to do with the head of the studio – and it shows in the final product which is honestly a trainwreck. 

According to a new report from Variety, Phillips refused to take any communication from Gunn and would only liaise with Warner Bros heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy about the film. As the trade noted, Phillips made it clear when asked about Gunn and Safran’s involvement in the film shortly after they first took over as the heads of DC telling Collider, “With all due respect to them, this is kind of a Warner Bros. movie.” 

This is an attitude that Phillips maintained during the production process with Variety reporting that Phillips “wanted nothing to do with DC,” which explains why Joker: Folie à Deux turned out to be such a hot mess and has failed at the box office. 

The film is built around two of DC’s most iconic and beloved characters in The Joker and Harley Quinn, yet Phillips ostracized not only the heads of the company but the entire DC fandom with his views. Rather than catering to the fans – fans who helped make the first film the billion-dollar success it became – Phillips did the opposite and the end result is a sequel that will go down as one of the biggest box office flops of all time. 

Given his stance on working with DC and Gunn, it’s likely that any feedback Gunn and the DC brass would have given Phillips would have likely fallen on deaf ears which is a shame as Gunn could have helped right the course of the ship. Gunn could have undoubtedly helped turn the film into a project that would have excited the DC fans and helped get them to movie theaters to see the film. 

Instead, DC fans have turned their backs on Joker: Folie à Deux just as Phillips turned his back on DC.