That Rumored Joker and Harley Quinn Movie Could Be Back in Play

19 hours ago 6

Deana Carpenter is a Movies & TV News Reporter at CBR. Before joining the team, she worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Almanac and spent more than 15 years as a freelance newspaper reporter. With a background in journalism and media, she brings strong reporting experience and a passion for storytelling to her coverage of film and television.

Director Zach Cregger is fresh off the massive success of his horror film, Weapons, which made more than $268 million worldwide. Now, the filmmaker is setting his eyes on a popular DC franchise.

A social media post has ignited a rumor that a movie starring two iconic DC characters, the Joker and Harley Quinn, might still be happening. Per @SnyderRandom on X, Puck News is reporting that a Joker/Harley Quinn movie from Cregger could be in the future.

“Puck reports that Zach Cregger is already pitching a DC movie to Paramount,” the X post reads. “And that Paramount might not keep DC Studios as a greenlight authority, contrary to previous reports,” the post continued.

The post included a screenshot from Puck News that read: It appears that early planning is already in place for when — and if — the Ellisons lock up Warner Bros. Paramount is owned by Skydance Media, a company that is controlled by David Ellison, who is the chair and CEO of Paramount Global. The company is looking to acquire Warner Bros.

“According to a knowledgeable source, Paramount has been crushing lately on writer-director Zach Cregger, red hot after August’s Weapons grossed $268 million worldwide on a budget of about $40 million,” the post continued. “Josh Greenstein, the co-chair of Paramount Pictures, recently trekked to Prague to court Cregger, who is trying to concentrate on his Resident Evil reboot for Sony.”

Puck News continued, “I’m told Cregger discussed with Greenstein his desire to write and direct a movie set in a particular corner of the DC Universe (which character or characters are involved is unclear), and Greenstein said he would be more than happy to make that happen, if possible. As things now stand at Warner Bros., James Gunn and Peter Safran control who directs DC movies, choices they make after they have developed scripts to their liking. It sounds like change may be in the wind, if indeed the Ellisons prevail. (Paramount declined to comment).”

Lady Gaga Talks the Flop That Was Joker: Folie à Deux

While it remains to be seen if Cregger will direct the next Joker/Harley Quinn movie, the previous movie featuring the Joker and Harley Quinn, 2024’s Joker: Folie à Deux, was a major flop. Following the massive success of 2019’s Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix, which earned more than $1 billion worldwide, the sequel featuring Phoenix as Arthur Fleck/Joker and Lady Gaga as Lee Quinzel/Harley Quinn, earned just $207.5 million globally. It also has a “rotten” 31% critic and audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Lady Gaga recently broke her silence regarding the criticism Joker: Folie à Deux garnered. Speaking with Rolling Stone, she talked about Todd Phillips’ Joker sequel in which she made her debut as an alternate version of Harley Quinn.

“I wasn’t, like, unfazed,” Gaga said when asked about the movie’s critical and fan reception. “It’s funny, I’m almost nervous to share my reaction. But the truth is, when it first started happening, I started laughing. Because it was just getting so unhinged," she said. “When it takes a while for something to kind of dissipate, that can be a little bit more painful. Only because I put a lot of myself into it,” Gaga added.

Gaga also touched on the fact that the Joker sequel had some aspects that came as a surprise, like the fact that it was a more musical take on the storied DC characters. “There was a ton of negativity around Joker,” Gaga said. “And I think I was feeling artistically rebellious at the time.”

Both Joker and Joker: Folie à Deux are streaming on HBO Max.