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Kojima on Joker 2: Why the Divisive Flop Will Age Well

Kojima Joker 2 verdict: the legendary designer says Folie à Deux’s reputation will change in 10-20 years. Here’s his full take and why fans should care.

Published

3 hours ago

October 16, 2026

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Kojima on Joker 2: Why the Divisive Flop Will Age Well

Hideo Kojima watched Joker: Folie à Deux and walked away with a thesis. The legendary game designer didn’t just shrug off the film’s disastrous box office and scathing reviews. He argued, in a tweet that reads like a director’s commentary track, that the movie’s reputation will flip over the next 10 or 20 years. That’s the Kojima Joker 2 take everyone’s arguing about right now, and it’s worth unpacking because he’s not just being contrarian for fun.

Kojima’s verdict lands at a weird moment for the film. Joker: Folie à Deux pulled in around $201 million globally, a brutal drop from the billion-dollar haul of the 2018 original. IGN’s own review gave it a 5/10, calling it a waste of its potential as a musical, a courtroom drama, and a sequel. Fans didn’t just skip it. A lot of them actively hated it.

So why is Kojima, the man behind Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding, planting a flag for a movie most people already buried? Because he thinks the movie is asking a question audiences weren’t ready to answer.

Table of Contents

What Kojima Actually Said About Joker 2

Kojima broke the film down scene by scene in his post. He pointed to the opening animation sequence, a Looney Tunes-style short about Joker and his shadow. Then the trial, where the film argues the question of Arthur Fleck’s multiple personality from start to finish. Is the Joker Arthur? Is the Joker a separate personality? Who exactly is Arthur?

That question, Kojima argues, eventually becomes a meta-commentary on the first film. In Joker, was it really the Joker who captivated audiences worldwide? Or was it Arthur? The movie keeps throwing that question at Lee, played by Lady Gaga, and at the people of Gotham.

Kojima’s bigger point is about the era we’re in. We live in an age of mass-produced poetic justice heroes and good-versus-evil battles, he wrote. Lately, plenty of spin-off films focus on villains. Can villains be superheroes too? Kojima wonders if asking that question on a DC movie’s big screen was simply too avant-garde for the moment.

This is where he says the reviews diverged. And he thinks time will sort it out.

Why Kojima Might Be Right About the Long Game

Kojima isn’t the only heavyweight defending this film. Quentin Tarantino praised the sequel last month, calling it the Natural Born Killers he would have dreamed of seeing. Tarantino said he got caught up in the musical sequences and found himself listening to the lyrics of For Once in My Life in a way he never had before.

That’s two major filmmakers with wildly different sensibilities both saying the same thing: the movie works on a level most viewers didn’t meet it at. Tarantino even admitted he’s nihilistic enough to enjoy a big, giant mess that doesn’t quite work as a movie.

Kojima’s argument is more structured. He’s saying the film’s central question, whether the audience ever loved Arthur or just the Joker persona, is the exact question the sequel forces you to confront. That’s a hard sell in a theater on opening weekend. It’s an easier sell in a film studies class in 2044.

There’s also the Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga factor. Kojima closed his post with a line that reads almost like a challenge: There is no doubt that everyone in the audience loved Joaquin and Gaga in this film. Even the film’s harshest critics tend to agree the performances weren’t the problem.

Kojima’s Track Record With Divisive Art

If you’ve followed Kojima at all, this take shouldn’t shock you. The man has spent his career making work that splits audiences down the middle. Death Stranding was called a walking simulator by people who bounced off it in two hours and a masterpiece by people who finished the 40-hour trek. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty confused an entire generation of fans with its bait-and-switch protagonist and meta ending. Both games have been reassessed and celebrated in the years since.

Kojima knows what it feels like to make something the moment isn’t ready for. That doesn’t automatically make him right about Joker 2. But it does mean he’s not just tweeting hot takes for engagement.

His current Hollywood footprint is growing too. He’s working with A24 on a Death Stranding film adaptation. He showed up at a Tokyo screening of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms, gushed about the film’s art and sound direction, and admitted it made him a little jealous. Parsons said at the Q&A that he’d love to collaborate with a certain someone in the near future. Kojima has a habit of collecting the filmmakers he respects, like Pokémon he can later feature in his projects.

Meanwhile, PlayStation reportedly dropped Kojima’s Physint over a growing budget and missed deadlines, and Xbox swooped in to fund it. So Kojima is watching the industry treat his own ambitious projects as risky bets while he defends another creator’s risky bet. There’s a pattern here.

The Verdict: Should You Give Joker 2 Another Shot?

If you hated Joker: Folie à Deux the first time, Kojima’s tweet probably won’t flip you overnight. But it gives you a lens. Watch it again looking for the Arthur-versus-Joker question instead of a Joker sequel. Watch the courtroom scenes as an argument about identity, not a plot device. Watch the musical numbers as the film’s id bleeding through.

If you skipped it entirely because of the reviews, Kojima and Tarantino both just told you the reviews missed something. That’s not nothing.

Start with the opening animation sequence. If that Looney Tunes-style short about Joker and his shadow doesn’t hook you, the rest of the film won’t either. If it does, you’re about to watch a movie that Kojima thinks will be vindicated in 10 or 20 years. You can decide for yourself whether you want to wait that long.

Joker: Folie à Deux is out now. Kojima’s full tweet is worth reading in one sitting, spoilers and all.

Frequently Asked Questions (Kojima on Joker 2)

What did Hideo Kojima say about Joker: Folie à Deux?

Kojima said the film’s reputation will likely change over the next 10 or 20 years. He argued the movie asks whether audiences ever loved Arthur Fleck or just the Joker persona, and that the reviews diverged because the film was too avant-garde for the moment.

Did Quentin Tarantino also defend Joker 2?

Yes. Tarantino praised the sequel, calling it the Natural Born Killers he would have dreamed of seeing. He said he got caught up in the musical sequences and enjoyed how banal the songs were.

How much did Joker: Folie à Deux make at the box office?

The film pulled in around $201 million globally, a massive drop from the billion-dollar success of the original Joker.

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Burna Boy KCee Attend Jowizaza Newborn Party — Zubby Stole It

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Burna Boy KCee Attend Jowizaza Newborn Party — Zubby Stole It

Burna Boy KCee attend Jowizaza’s newborn celebration in Lagos, but Zubby Michael’s Bestie shirt and E-Money’s calm reaction stole the show.

Published

2 hours ago

October 16, 2026

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Burna Boy KCee Attend Jowizaza Newborn Party — Zubby Stole It

Burna Boy KCee attend Jowizaza’s newborn celebration in Lagos, and somehow neither of them owned the night. That honor went to a shirt.

Zubby Michael walked into the gathering wearing a promotional tee for Toyin Abraham’s upcoming movie, Bestie. At a party packed with Grammy winners and money men, a Nollywood actor turned himself into a billboard. And it worked.

Here’s what actually happened, who showed up, and why the internet can’t stop arguing about it.

Burna Boy KCee attend Jowizaza's newborn celebration — Burna Boy KCee attend Jowizaza’s newborn celebration

The Guest List Was Absurd

Socialite Joseph Ezeokafor Jr., known as Jowizaza, welcomed a newborn with his wife, and the celebration drew a cross-section of Nigerian entertainment that you rarely see in one room. Burna Boy showed up. KCee showed up. Businessman E-Money, actress Ini Edo, actor IK Ogbonna, and cleric Prophet Odumeje were all spotted.

Jowizaza is tied to the Jezco business interests and is known for his connections across business and entertainment circles. So the turnout wasn’t a surprise to anyone who follows Lagos social scene politics. What was surprising was how one outfit cut through all that star power.

Burna Boy Arrives And The Room Shifts

Footage shared online captured the moment the African Giant walked in, and the energy changed instantly. Guests visibly lit up. This was on Sunday, October 11, 2026, per reports, and the clip spread fast.

E-Money’s reaction is the part that really traveled. While everyone else reacted with visible excitement, the businessman stayed composed. He didn’t rush. He later exchanged pleasantries with Burna Boy in a calm, one-on-one moment.

Fans ate that contrast up. One commenter wrote that E-Money is hard to impress because his money is too long. Another said the composure was the mark of someone on a different level entirely. Whether that’s admiration or just Nigerian internet doing what it does, the clip did numbers.

Zubby Michael’s Shirt Becomes The Story

Amid all of that, Zubby Michael’s wardrobe decision became the talking point. He arrived in a shirt branded with the title of Toyin Abraham’s upcoming film, Bestie. Then he posted a clip of himself alongside Burna Boy from the event, which poured fuel on the whole thing.

Reactions split cleanly. Some mocked the move. One Instagram user said Zubby has no style and pointed at the shirt. Another asked what exactly he was wearing for that kind of setting. A third suggested he should drop the Onitsha style when standing next to men of class.

Others defended him hard. One fan said people should simply celebrate him instead of dropping negativity everywhere. Another noted the Bestie shirt specifically as the detail that stood out. A third tagged Toyin Abraham directly and said she is loved.

Toyin Abraham Responds

The actress didn’t stay quiet. After the clip gained traction, she responded warmly, writing that she loves him and calling him too real.

That response reframed the whole thing. What looked like a questionable fashion call to some became a very public show of solidarity between colleagues. In an industry where promotion windows are short and attention is currency, Zubby gave a friend’s project free placement at one of the most photographed gatherings of the month. That’s not cluelessness. That’s a favor.

IK Ogbonna’s Quiet Grief In A Loud Room

The emotional counterweight to all the noise came from IK Ogbonna. While attending the celebration, he posted a photo of himself with the late Alexx Ekubo, captioned simply: Bestie for life.

The timing landed hard. Videos from the event showed Ogbonna alongside Burna Boy, KCee, and E-Money, all celebrating a birth. And in the middle of that, he was thinking about his closest friend who wasn’t there.

Fans in the comments pointed out exactly that. One wrote that Ekubo should have been at Jowizaza’s house sharing the happiness. Another said Ogbonna was at the occasion and still missing his guy. A third admitted they haven’t healed yet and asked him not to make them cry.

It’s the kind of moment that reminds you these celebrity gatherings aren’t just content. People carry things into them.

Why This Party Kept Trending

Three separate clips from one event drove three separate conversations. Burna Boy’s entrance. E-Money’s non-reaction. Zubby’s shirt. That’s a lot of mileage from a newborn celebration.

The reason is simple. Nigerian audiences don’t just watch celebrity events, they grade them. Who showed up, who wore what, who looked pressed, who stayed unbothered. Every frame gets dissected, and the verdicts get posted within hours.

Jowizaza’s gathering gave the internet all the raw material it needed in a single night, and the fact that it was a family milestone rather than an awards show or a concert made it feel more candid. Less staged. More real.

What To Watch Next

Toyin Abraham’s Bestie now has a story attached to it before most people have seen a trailer. That’s free marketing you can’t buy, delivered by a colleague who didn’t have to do it.

Whether Zubby keeps wearing the shirt to every event on his calendar is the real question. If he does, he’s either the most loyal man in Nollywood or the smartest self-promoter in it. Probably both.

And if Burna Boy KCee attend Jowizaza’s newborn celebration again for the next family milestone, expect the same chaos. Lagos doesn’t do quiet parties, and this circle doesn’t do low-profile.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who attended Jowizaza’s newborn celebration in Lagos?

Burna Boy, KCee, E-Money, Ini Edo, Zubby Michael, IK Ogbonna, and Prophet Odumeje were among the guests at the celebration for socialite Joseph Ezeokafor Jr. and his wife.

Why did Zubby Michael’s outfit get so much attention?

He wore a shirt branded with the title of Toyin Abraham’s upcoming movie, Bestie, turning himself into a walking advertisement at a star-studded event. Toyin Abraham later responded publicly to thank him.

How did E-Money react when Burna Boy arrived?

E-Money stayed composed rather than joining the excited reaction from other guests, later greeting Burna Boy in a calm one-on-one moment. Fans online praised his unbothered demeanor.

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Entertainment TV & Film

Love Afrobeats? Score a 4LP Fela Kuti Box Set

Love afrobeats? Score a 4LP box set from Fela Kuti, the man who built the genre. Here’s what’s inside and why it matters.

Published

5 hours ago

October 16, 2026

Admin

Love Afrobeats? Score a 4LP Fela Kuti Box Set

Love afrobeats? Score a 4LP box set from Fela Kuti, the man who built the sound you’re streaming right now. This isn’t a greatest-hits cash grab. It’s four slabs of wax documenting the architect of a genre that took fifty years to conquer the globe.

If you’ve been riding the wave since Burna Boy’s Grammy run or Wizkid’s “Essence” summer, here’s the uncomfortable truth: none of it exists without Fela Anikulapo Kuti. The box set is the closest thing to a history lesson you can drop on a turntable.

What’s Actually In The Box

Four LPs. That’s the headline. The set pulls from Fela’s most productive era, when he was running the Afrika Shrine in Lagos and turning political fury into groove. The tracks stretch past the ten-minute mark because that’s how Fela worked. He didn’t write songs. He built arguments.

For anyone raised on three-minute streaming edits, the length is the point. You sit with a track. You let the horn section circle back. You notice the bassline shift at minute seven. This is music that rewards patience, and the vinyl format forces that patience on you.

Why Fela Still Matters In 2026

The afrobeats boom has a strange relationship with its own origin story. Modern stars cite Fela as an influence in interviews, then release songs that sound nothing like him. That’s fine. Genre evolution works that way. But it means a lot of fans are missing the foundation.

Fela’s Afrobeat, the original spelling, was a deliberate fusion. He took Yoruba rhythms, James Brown funk, and jazz improvisation, then layered political commentary on top. The Nigerian government hated him for it. He kept going anyway.

That stubbornness is what you’re buying when you pick up this box set. Not nostalgia. A blueprint.

Standout Tracks And Where To Start

The long-form pieces are the ones that hit hardest on vinyl. The horn arrangements have room to breathe. The percussion doesn’t get compressed into mush. If you’ve only heard Fela through streaming services, the difference is immediate and slightly disorienting.

Start with the most rhythmically direct track on the set. Don’t skip to the shortest one. The shortest track on a Fela record is still longer than most modern album cuts, and the payoff comes in the back half.

For context on how differently vinyl changes a listening experience, Popdust’s breakdown of LANY’s mama’s boy makes a similar point about production choices shaping how an album lands. Fela’s engineers understood this decades before anyone called it a production aesthetic.

Where The Box Set Falls Short

No box set is perfect, and this one has the usual issues. If the pressing quality is inconsistent, you’ll hear it on the quieter passages. Fela’s music is dense, and a bad pressing turns dense into muddy. Check reviews of the specific pressing before you commit.

The packaging is another question mark. Some reissues prioritize liner notes and photos. Others skimp. This hasn’t been officially confirmed in detail, so if you care about the booklet, wait for unboxing videos before dropping the money.

And the price. Four LPs is never cheap. If you’re new to Fela, a single-disc compilation might serve you better. The box set is for people who already know they want the deep cuts.

Why This Matters For Afrobeats Fans

The genre’s current stars are building on something specific. When you hear a Burna Boy horn line or a Wizkid groove that feels older than it is, that’s Fela’s DNA. Owning the box set is a way of hearing the source code.

It’s also a statement. Vinyl collecting has become a way for fans to signal that they take music seriously, the same way Ariana Grande fans defended thank u, next against critics who dismissed it as disposable pop. Physical media says you’re not just streaming. You’re committing.

Should You Buy It?

If you love afrobeats and you’ve never gone back to Fela, this is the entry point. The box set is expensive, imperfect, and occasionally frustrating. It’s also the most direct line to the music that made everything else possible.

Start with the longest track. Not the most famous one. The longest. Give it fifteen minutes. If it doesn’t click, Fela might not be for you, and that’s fine. Not every fan needs to trace the lineage.

But if it does click, you’ll hear every afrobeats song you love differently. That’s the consequence of going to the source. You can’t unhear it.

For a sense of how physical releases still drive fan engagement in 2026, look at how Taylor Swift’s team handled The Life of a Showgirl rollout. Preorders, limited pressings, and the promise of something you can hold. Fela’s box set operates on the same logic, just fifty years removed from the marketing machine.

The difference is that Fela never needed a marketing machine. He had the Shrine, the horns, and a government that wanted him gone. The records survived anyway. Now they’re in a box, waiting for you to decide whether the history is worth the shelf space.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is included in the Fela Kuti 4LP box set?

The box set contains four LPs of Fela Kuti’s music from his most productive era. Specific track listings and packaging details haven’t been officially confirmed in full, so check the product page before buying.

Is this box set good for someone new to Fela Kuti?

It depends. If you already love afrobeats and want to understand its roots, the box set is a strong entry point. If you’re completely new, a single-disc compilation might be a cheaper way to test the waters first.

Why does Fela Kuti matter for modern afrobeats fans?

Fela created Afrobeat by fusing Yoruba rhythms, James Brown funk, and jazz with political commentary. Every modern afrobeats artist builds on that foundation, whether they cite him or not.

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Entertainment TV & Film

Tems: Writing Music Helps Me Heal, Release Pain

Tems says writing music helps me heal, release pain – tems reveals her creative catharsis in a new interview. Read how she turns heartbreak into art.

Published

6 hours ago

October 16, 2026

Clare Dominic

Tems: Writing Music Helps Me Heal, Release Pain

Tems just said the quiet part out loud. In a new interview with EE72 Magazine, the Grammy-winning singer and songwriter admitted that writing music helps me heal, release pain – tems put it plainly, and it landed like a confession from someone who has been through it. “Writing music helps me release pain and it helps me to heal,” she told the magazine. “By the time I am done, everything I felt, it is gone. I can let the whole situation go. I can forgive. I can move on.”

That is not a throwaway quote. It is a working method. And for an artist whose catalog runs on emotional precision, it explains why her songs hit the way they do.

What Tems Actually Said About Music As Therapy

writing music helps me heal, release pain – tems

The Nigerian star, born Temilade Openiyi, did not frame music as a career move in this conversation. She framed it as a release valve. According to Daily Post, Tems explained that the aftereffect of writing is what makes it therapeutic. The pain does not just get expressed. It gets expelled.

That distinction matters. Plenty of artists say they “channel” pain into art. Tems is describing something closer to a full reset. By the time she finishes a song, the feeling is gone. Not managed. Gone.

She also spoke about being unapologetic regarding her art and herself. “I am not trying to prove who I am,” she said. “I know what is for me and what is not for me. I am trying to take everything in and make the best of every single moment.”

Read that again. No defensiveness. No performance. Just a woman who has stopped auditioning for approval.

Why This Hits Different In Afrobeats

Afrobeats has no shortage of bangers about enjoyment, money, and motion. Tems operates in a different lane. Her writing has always leaned into interiority — the kind of lyrics that make you sit with yourself instead of the club.

That is not an accident. If writing music helps me heal, release pain – tems is describing a process that prioritizes honesty over hits. The hits came anyway. A Grammy, global features, and a voice that producers fight to sample.

But the healing part is the engine. Without it, the songs would be hollow.

Compare her approach to another artist who recently opened up about emotional catharsis. Karol G told Rolling Stone that she retreated to Hawaii for a month and two weeks, sat alone in her room, and wrote constantly. “As an artist and as a composer, you really experience a lot of catharsis through music,” Karol said. Two different genres, two different continents, same conclusion: the notebook is cheaper than therapy and often more effective.

What This Means For Fans Waiting On New Tems Music

If Tems is writing to release pain, then every project she drops is a document of something she survived. That raises the stakes. You are not just hearing songs. You are hearing the residue of a process that already did its job for her.

She does not need your validation. She already got what she needed from the writing itself.

That is a strange position for a fan. You want the music. She needed the music. The transaction is uneven, and she seems fine with that.

The Broader Conversation Around Artists And Mental Health

Tems is not the first Nigerian artist to talk about pressure. The industry is brutal — streaming numbers, comparison culture, and a fanbase that demands constant output. Add public scrutiny and it becomes a lot.

Even the arguments around artists get messy. A separate report from Daily Post detailed how social media personality Gehgeh accused VeryDarkMan VDM of treating Davido as an enemy because of his friendship with Burna Boy. Gehgeh called VDM’s reported warning to Davido “wrong in all ramifications.” The point is not the feud itself. The point is the noise. Artists live inside a constant storm of opinions, allegiances, and attacks.

Writing is Tems’s exit door. Not a marketing strategy. Not a brand extension. A way out.

What She Is Not Saying

Tems did not announce a new album in this interview. She did not confirm a release date or tease a single. This has not been officially confirmed, and fans should not treat it as a rollout.

What she did confirm is a mindset. The unapologetic part is not a pose. It reads like someone who has already made peace with the fact that not everyone will get it.

That is rare. Most artists spend entire careers chasing the approval she says she is not looking for.

Should Fans Listen To Tems Differently Now?

Yes. Not because the music changes, but because the context does. When you know that writing music helps me heal, release pain – tems is not a slogan but a practice, the songs become evidence. Every verse about heartbreak, distance, or release is a scar that closed.

Start with her most emotionally exposed tracks. Listen for the moments where the writing sounds like it was not meant for you. Those are the ones that did the work.

The next time Tems drops something, remember this interview. She is not giving you her pain. She already let it go. You are just hearing what was left behind.

Frequently Asked Questions

What did Tems say about writing music?

Tems said writing music helps her release pain and heal. She explained that by the time she is done, the feelings are gone and she can forgive and move on.