It’s incredibly rare when the internet unanimously agrees on something, so when the sequel to the highly profitable film, ‘Joker’ received a resoundingly negative reception across social media, the need for a closer look seems inviting.

Given the way the studio system works in Hollywood, a sequel to the highly successful and profitable first ‘Joker’ film was inevitable. With its massive box office earnings and its star Joaquin Phoenix earning himself an Oscar for the lead role, it was only a matter of time before the follow-up was greenlit. 

But as we’ve seen countless times before, sequels often struggle to capture the magic of their predecessors. The first Joker film had its flaws as well and received mixed reviews from critics, but the financial success it had deemed it a triumph in the eyes of Hollywood, where box office returns are often the primary indicator for success.

However, the sequel appears to be facing a different challenge—one where even the audience, who eagerly awaited its return, is left feeling underwhelmed, which raises an intriguing question: why do some sequels fail, even when they follow a proven formula? 

Sequels often fail because they try too hard to replicate the success of the original without evolving the story or characters. The ‘Joker’ sequel struggles because it revisits the same dark themes of isolation, madness, and chaos that defined the first film, but without adding new layers or depth to the narrative. The audience is left feeling like they’ve seen this before. What made the original unique was its daring approach to mental health and society’s role in shaping people like Arthur Fleck. But by repeating the same ideas, the sequel becomes stagnant and repetitive. In this sequel, the desire to hold onto what made the first film successful becomes its downfall. 

By remaining overly dependent on the formula of what worked the first time, the film deflates its own potential, showing that sometimes the boldest move is not to repeat what worked but to move into uncharted territory. The result is a film that, much like its protagonist, seems trapped by its own past, unable to break free from the burden of what came before. Audiences connect with stories that mirror the complexities of life, where characters aren’t stagnant but instead face challenges, and specifically new challenges, that demand change. 

The failure of many sequels lies not only in their execution, but in their inability to break free from the comfort of familiar territory, to embrace the uncertainty that comes with growth. When a story, or a character, refuses to evolve, it loses its capacity to surprise and, ultimately, to matter. 

Ultimately, what ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ reveals about sequels isn’t merely a failure of creativity, but a larger truth about stories themselves. The stories that resonate most deeply are the ones that are willing to evolve. When sequels remain fixated on recreating past successes, they fall into a loop, forever circling the same idea without breaking free. It’s not the lack of effort that causes them to fail, it’s the unwillingness to let the story move forward, to embrace change and risk something new for the character.

It’s the willingness to risk failure, to let go of what worked in the past and explore the unknown, that often leads to the most meaningful transformations. The stories that endure are the ones that dare to step forward into new territory, even if it means confronting the possibility of falling short. This is where depth comes from, the act of moving beyond repetition, of allowing the unknown to reshape what came before into something entirely new.

But at the same time, the willingness to experiment, to push boundaries even at the risk of alienating audiences, perhaps deserves a certain respect. It might not have been a well executed risk, but taking any risks in big-budget filmmaking, especially in today’s market, is rare, and ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ dares to defy expectations in a way that few sequels do.

This duality of art—where triumph and failure coexist—reminds us that every attempt to innovate and move forward carries its own inherent beauty, perhaps even regardless of the outcome. 

Whether or not you liked the film, I think it’s important to realise that the risk it represents is one that we can all learn from, because risking external invalidation for the pursuit of a meaningful internal purpose & integrity, might just be a pursuit that we all should strive for.

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Written by Ben Joshua