Joker Director Explains Why DC’s Top Movie Bosses Were Not Involved In The Sequel

James Gunn and Peter Safran are the new co-heads of DC Studios, but they were not involved in the production of Joker: Folie à Deux from writer-director Todd Phillips. During a recent Q&A, Phillips said Gunn and Safran were purposely left out of the discussion because Folie à Deux was considered a Warner Bros. movie, not a DC Studios movie, so it was outside of their technical purview.

“With all due respect to [Gunn and Safran], this is kind of a Warner Brothers movie, and that’s them also wanting it to be like, ‘Okay, Todd did his thing. Let Todd continue to do his thing,'” Phillips said, as reported by Slash Film.

Co-writer Scott Silver mentioned that Folie à Deux began production before Gunn and Safran took were hired as DC Studios co-bosses in October 2022. The first Joker movie was released in 2019.

Gunn and Safran saw a cut of Folie à Deux prior to its release, though, Phillips said. He added that Folie a Deux is not a “DC proper” film.

Phillips’ Joker series and Matt Reeves’ The Batman franchise exist as part of the DC Elseworlds label, which is outside of the official DC canon. That allows the filmmakers to do what they want and not have it impact the wider canon. Gunn and Safran, meanwhile, are shepherding the mainline DC movie series, which includes 2025’s Superman and 2026’s Supergirl.

Folie à Deux is in theaters now, and while it’s earned more than $120 million worldwide after its first weekend, the film is falling well short of the original in terms of box office performance. Of course, it was never expected to match the success of that film, which would go on to make $1 billion+ worldwide.

For more on Folie à Deux, check out GameSpot’s breakdown of the film’s divisive and shocking ending.