Fans Concerned About Weight Joaquin Phoenix Might Have To Lose To Play Joker All Over Again

Joaquin Phoenix fans have flooded to Twitter in concern for the star ahead of his return as the Joker.

The sequel to 2019 film Joker was confirmed by director Todd Phillips just last week.

However, while fans of the psychological thriller are delighted to see Joaquin Phoenix's return, many are also concerned with the amount of weight the actor may now need to lose in order to get back into the role.

Phoenix previously revealed how losing 52 pounds to play the role turned into something akin to a 'disorder'.

He told the Associated Press: "Once you reach the target weight, everything changes.

"Like so much of what's difficult is waking up every day and being obsessed over like 0.3 pounds. Right? And you really develop like a disorder."

However, Phoenix noted how important it was for him to lose the weight in order to portray the Joker's character exactly how he wanted.

The actor explained he anticipated the 'feelings of dissatisfaction, hunger, a certain kind of vulnerability and a weakness' that come with the weight loss.

"But what I didn't anticipate was this feeling of kind of fluidity that I felt physically," he continued.

"I felt like I could move my body in ways that I hadn't been able to before. And I think that really lent itself to some of the physical movement that started to emerge as an important part of the character."

Despite the importance of truly embodying the character of the Joker for Phoenix, fans have been left worried.

One said: "I was just thinking that Joaquin has to lose all that weight again. That’s so not healthy for the body."

"Poor Joaquin needs to lose all his body weight again," another commented.

A third said: "Joaquin right now thinking ‘have I gotta lose all that weight again?’"

One inspiration for the character of the Joker saw Phoenix look to American vaudevillian dancer Ray Bolger.

Phoenix was shown videos of Bolger by choreographer Michael Arnold and became captivated by Bolger's movement.

He said: "There was a particular song called ‘The Old Soft Shoe' that he performed and I saw a video of it and there's this odd arrogance almost to his movements and, really, I completely just stole it from him."

The actor explained how he 'zeroed in' on one particular video which shows Arnold doing 'this thing of turning his chin up'.

"'That was Joker, right?' There's an arrogance to him, really. That was probably the greatest influence. But also disco," he noted.

A date hasn't yet been set for the release of Joker: Folie à Deux - the movie's current working title.