Joaquin Phoenix Says He Wants to Play the Joker Again

It seems that Joaquin Phoenix has caught a bit of the Joker bug.

ComicBook.com reports that the 44-year-old actor, who is already generating Oscar buzz for his stellar performance as the clown-faced villain, recently sat down with Popcorn With Peter Travers. In the interview, Phoenix explained that his love for the role of Arthur Fleck, a comedian who descends into darkness and becomes the Joker, kind of snuck up on him.

He admits in the video below:

“I wouldn’t have thought this is my dream role, but now, honestly, I can’t stop thinking about it. I talked to Todd [Phillips] a lot about what else we might be able to do, in general, just to work together, but also specifically, if there’s something else we can do with Joker that might be interesting. So, it ended up being a dream role. It’s nothing that I really wanted to do prior to working on this movie.”

Though both director Todd Phillips and Phoenix have publicly stated that there are no plans at all for a sequel, I don’t think the Warner Bros. would mind if they decided to take one on. The film broke the record for the biggest-ever October opening with $96 million over its first weekend.

And I’m sure fans wouldn’t be upset about a sequel either. Though the film was technically meant to be a one-off that's separate from the DC Extended Universe, fans and critics are still raving about the gritty adaptation of Batman’s most infamous antagonist.

We will see if Phoenix and Phillips’ Joker fever turns into another project.