Director Todd Phillips has unveiled our first official look at Lady Gaga in Joker: Folie à Deux, the upcoming sequel to 2019's Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix. In the sequel, Gaga portrays Harley Quinn, and the image reveals the character gazing into the eyes of the Clown Prince of Crime. This strongly suggests that the film will indeed explore the romantic relationship between the two characters, which begins with Harley serving as the Joker's psychiatrist in Arkham Asylum, per Batman lore.Originally introduced in Batman: The Animated Series, Harley Quinn was depicted as the Joker's lover, serving as his partner in crime while enduring verbal and physical abuse at the hands of the facepainted madman. In more recent years, she is more often depicted as someone who broke free from the Joker, and in both comic books and the HBO Max animated series, Harley has been exploring a romantic relationship with Poison Ivy, dubbed "Harlivy." With this in mind, some Harlivy fans are disappointed to see that Joker 2 is resurrecting the Joker and Harley relationship, feeling that it's time to move past that aspect of the character's origins."Harley Quinn is literally with Poison Ivy now ….like it’s canon…but the str8s keep shoving Harley and the joker down our throats," as one person puts it on Twitter.

"We gonna have another f**king movie about Harley and Joker meanwhile Harley is so over with him on the comics and the animated show," one follower responded. "Sounds homophobic if you ask me. We need a Harlivy movie already."

Another tweeter laments, "I know it’s early and it just came out, but man some of the responses to this image make me nauseated. 'True love' 'me and my partner when _______.' Here goes Harley and Joker being seen as an ideal relationship again."

Making it clear that this isn't against Gaga personally, someone else writes in a tweet, "y’all I love lady gaga sm but it’s time to move on from harley and joker’s relationship and move on to her endgame which is poison ivy like I don’t give a shit about this abusive man please give margot her poison ivy this girl has been asking for it for years."

Another tweet reads, "This picture just screams ‘I’m going to ra*e her later’ Harley Gaga, get an ivy to beat this crybaby joker’s ass! Keep in mind that this joker is in his 50s in this movie and Harley is probably in her late 20s [red flags] also is anyone getting sick of seeing this story?"

Related: Christina Ricci Voices Harley Quinn in New Audio Series for Spotify

Others Are Very Excited for Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn

Harley Quinn Lady Gaga Art
Art by spdrmnkyxxiii

Overall, the reactions to Gaga as Harley seem to be much more on the positive side, despite some Twitter criticism. In barely more than 12 hours time, Gaga had acquired more than 248K likes on the image when she shared it on Twitter. The original share from Todd Phillips on Instagram has also reached 244K likes as of this writing. The photo alone is clearly generating a lot of interest from other fans.

"I am so excited for it," one fan writes. "When I first heard about it, I didn’t think I’d be excited for it much but now I am VERY excited I know it will be great. Lady Gaga will be a great Harley Quinn and Joaquin Phoenix is already a great joker."

Another fan tweeted, "Todd Phillips posted this picture from Joker 2 with Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn! I’m so excited. As the biggest Harley Quinn fan, I know that Lady Gaga is absolutely going to smash this role!"

And, meanwhile, some fans are torn, feeling a mixture of emotions as fans of Gaga who are over the Joker/Harley relationship. As one other person wrote online, "Very torn with this Gaga Harley business. Love Gaga, love Harley, hate the Harley Joker relationship for always. Please let this end with her and Poison Ivy kissing and doing crime."

In any case, it's going to be interesting to see how all of this plays out once the film is released. Joker: Folie à Deux will be released in movie theaters on Oct. 4, 2024.