It's a busy time for actor Brian Tyree Henry, as he has roles in several upcoming high profile films. On June 21st we'll see him taking on the role of Detective Mike Norris in the CHILD'S PLAY remake, a character who was played by Chris Sarandon in the original film. He's also in JOKER, GODZILLA VS. KONG, and just signed on to appear in A QUIET PLACE 2.
During an interview conducted by Observer's Brandon Katz, Henry talked a bit about a couple of those projects. Asked what will make JOKER's version of the title character, played by Joaquin Phoenix, stand out after we've already seen several other versions of the Joker, Henry said,
I think it’s going to be very different because it really goes into just the origin story. Villains are never born that way, they’re made. There’s something that happens in their lives that they give up their faith in humanity; they see the flaws of humanity and mankind and feel like they must correct it. And what happens with Joker is you start to see how he really was a happy person. He really was trying to find this… hope in humanity until it broke him down and he just had to give up and reshape it.
Also, there’s going to be a connection [made] about a boy and his mother. That is another thing that you’re going to see — that he was capable of love at some point. But, at the end of the day, I think it’s all about how he was made that way, how he didn’t start being that kind of person."
Directed by Todd Phillips from a script he wrote with Scott Silver, JOKER also stars Robert De Niro, Frances Conroy, Marc Maron, Brett Cullen, and Zazie Beetz. The film is scheduled to reach theatres on October 4th.
Katz then tried to get some information on the sequel to A QUIET PLACE, which we don't know very much about yet. Asked where the story goes in this one, Henry replied,
I’m still trying to find that out, but I really think that what we’ll do is we’ll see more of that family continuing to survive and finding out that they’re not the only ones. And I think that we’re also going to get a few answers to the origin of where and how this whole thing happened. I think that people want to know that. But I think you’re just going to see another side of it… more of humanity that survived this thing in this next story."
John Krasinksi is writing and directing A QUIET PLACE 2. The first film's stars Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, and Noah Jupe are back for this one, and so far the only new cast member we know of other than Henry is Cillian Murphy.
A QUIET PLACE 2 is scheduled to be released on March 20, 2020. That's just a week after the date GODZILLA VS. KONG is currently sitting on, but it sounds like the release of GODZILLA VS. KONG might end up being pushed back a bit.
Henry can be seen discussing CHILD'S PLAY and the Mike Norris character in the featurette below: