Los Angeles, Dec 26 (IANS): It’s been a long wait since ‘Joker’ starring Joaquin Phoenix came out in 2019 and made a dent in the cinematic world.

The anticipation for its sequel is at an all time high. To calm down the audience, the director of the film, Todd Phillips gave DC fans a Christmas present.

He dropped new photos of ‘Joker: Folie a Deux’ featuring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, reports Deadline.

Phillips shared two pictures on his on Instagram, In the first photo, Phoenix’s Joker is jailed, while the second photo sees Gaga’s Harley Quinn gazing at the Joker, who has his characteristic makeup on.

The director wrote in the caption, “Wishing everyone a happy holiday and a beautiful new year”. Phoenix is reprising his role of the Joker that he gave life to in the 2018 film. Lady Gaga is joining the sequel as Harley Quinn.

As per Deadline, the cast of the sequel also includes Catherine Keener, Brendan Gleeson and Zazie Beetz. ‘Joker: Folie a Deux’ is part of DC Elseworlds and is not part of the universe that Peter Safran and James Gunn are building since taking the helm of DC Studios.

Lady Gaga is taking on the role of Harley Quinn, which had been portrayed by Margot Robbie in films like ‘Suicide Squad’, ‘Birds of Prey’ and ‘The Suicide Squad’.

Robbie expressed her happiness that the Harley Quinn character will continue to live on. “It makes me so happy because I said from the very beginning, all I want is for Harley Quinn to be one of those characters, the way like Macbeth or Batman always gets passed from great actor to great actor,” Robbie told MTV News in 2022. She continued, “It’s such an honour to have built a foundation strong enough that Harley can now be one of those characters that other actors get to have a go at playing. I think she’ll do something incredible with it.”

‘Joker: Folie a Deux’ is slated to release on October 4, 2024.