Lady Gaga fans – we’ve got some good news for you. More than a year after Gaga was cast in the Joker sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, in which she stars as Harley Quinn opposite Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, the official trailer has just dropped.

Joker: Folie à Deux finds Arthur Fleck institutionalised at Arkham awaiting trial for his crimes as Joker. While struggling with his dual identity, Arthur not only stumbles upon true love, he also finds the music that’s always been inside him.

Gaga had first shared the news of her casting on social media back in August 2022, posting a video clip of her and Phoenix dancing in the shadows to Cheek To Cheek, a song Gaga covered alongside Tony Bennett.

Since then, it has been revealed that the film will be a musical – as one insider put it to Variety earlier this year, it is “mostly a jukebox musical”, with at least 15 reinterpretations of “very well-known” songs, including That’s Entertainment (originally from 1953 musical The Band Wagon).

The news of Gaga’s involvement in the film initially caused excitement among fans. However, while many celebrated Lady Gaga being cast in the Joker sequel, the news led many to discuss the controversy surrounding the first film and its depictions of mental health and violence, which were widely criticised.

The original 2019 Joker film was a commercial success but widely debated for the level of violence featured in the film and concerns over it highlighting incel culture.

But with a new film on the horizon, we could be seeing a shift. The casting of Gaga, who is a known mental health advocate and has a large LGBTQ+ fanbase, indicates an evolution in the demographic they are trying to reach going beyond the straight, white, die-hard DC comic book fans that were primarily associated with the initial film.

Joker: Folie à Deux is set to be released in cinemas on Friday 4 October.

Images: Warner Bros