Todd Phillips dismisses Joker sequel rumours

Todd Phillips has played down rumours that he is working on a 'Joker' sequel.

It was reported recently that the director had met with Warner Bros. film chief Toby Emmerich to discuss making another movie after the success of the recent film, in which Joaquin Phoenix plays the titular DC Comics villain.

However, Todd, 48, had dismissed the reports as "anticipatory at best".

The filmmaker told Indiewire: "Here's the real truth about a sequel. While Joaquin and I have talked about it, and while touring the world with Warner Bros executives - going to Toronto, and Venice, and other places - of course, we're sitting at dinner and they're saying, 'So, have you thought about ...?'

"But, talking about contracts, there's not a contract for us to even write a sequel, we've never approached Joaquin to be in a sequel. Will that happen? Again, I just think the article was anticipatory at best."

However, Todd has did not completely rule out the possibility of a sequel, especially after the box office success of the first.

He said: "Well, a movie doesn't make a billion dollars and they don't talk about a sequel. Joaquin and I have publicly said we've been talking about a sequel since week two of shooting because it's a fun thing to talk about. But the article was referring to other things than that that were just frankly untrue. I don't know how it gets started, if it's some assistant trying to gain street cred with a writer."

Joaquin, 45, previously expressed his desire to make a second 'Joker' film, suggesting that the Batman villain could work "in any movie".

He explained: "Long before the release or before we had any idea if it would be successful, we talked about sequels.

"In the second week or third week of shooting, I was like 'Todd, can you start working on a sequel? There's way too much to explore.' It was kind of in jest - but not really.

"I basically said, 'You could take this character and put him in any movie.' "