Joker: Folie a Deux star Joaquin Phoenix drew inspiration from a distinct group of musical clowns as he ready to reprise his position as the titular supervillain: Kiss.

The follow-up to 2019’s Joker stars Phoenix as the Joker (nee Arthur Fleck) and singer and actor Lady Gaga as his love curiosity, Harley Quinn. Folie a Deux takes place two years after Joker, by which level Arthur has been arrested and is in custody at Arkham State Hospital awaiting trial for a sequence of murders.

Phoenix and director Todd Phillips have been decided to not make an easy sequel to the $1 billion-grossing Joker, as an alternative placing a twisted love story at the musical’s core. “We didn’t want to just carry on from the first film like, he’s the Joker now, so now we’re going to see him out there robbing banks,” Phoenix advised USA Today. “There wasn’t going to be any of that.”

READ MORE: The Best Song From Every Kiss Album

How Did Kiss Inspire ‘Joker: Folie a Deux’?

By the time the occasions of Joker: Folie a Deux transpire, Arthur has develop into disillusioned along with his Joker persona — which is the place the Kiss inspiration got here into play.

“Did you ever think, how about Gene Simmons from Kiss? Where 20-year-olds are painting their faces, putting on platform shoes, all rock ‘n’ roll,” Phoenix mentioned. “But what happens when you’re in your 40s and like, ‘I don’t want to put the makeup on anymore’? I just started laughing about that. Todd and I were like, maybe that’s the beginning of something.”

Kiss technically received sick of making use of their signature make-up lengthy earlier than their 40s. The theatrical rockers famously ditched their face paint in 1983, solely to reapply it in 1996 for a large reunion tour — at which level Simmons was simply shy of 47. Kiss continued to tour for the subsequent 25-plus years, taking part in their last present in December 2023. Simmons was 75; his longtime bandmate Paul Stanley was 71.

Simmons has since been touring with a solo band, and he insists the bodily Kiss is finished for good (making means for the eventual avatar Kiss). “No more makeup for me,” he mentioned in March. “But we’re the luckiest people in the world.”