Editor’s Note: The following article contains spoilers for the ending of ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’.
Summary
Now thatJoker: Folie à Deuxis officially out in theaters, fans of director Todd Phillips and what he brought the DC Comics universe as finally able to see the end of the franchise. Phillips has said that there won’t be a third film with the characters featured inJoker 2. As it turns out, Phillips isn’t the first director to walk away from Arthur Fleck, Harley Quinn and Harvey Dent. In fact, there was a plan for Chrisopher Nolan to direct the movie, but he said no when a discussion over how the latest installment should end. Oddly, his departure allowed a totally different ending to become reality. That ending just happens to be one that people are furious over.
It appears that when Nolan was helmingJoker: Folie à Deuxthe ending the studio wanted to work with could have essentially been a way to pay homage to the Batman movie that Christopher Nolan is most known for. There would have been anod towardsThe Dark Knight. However, the famed director wouldn’t agree to do it. When he left, the studio decided it still wanted to keep the moment in, though changed it just enough that it was its own thing.
The Ending That Leads To The Past
In the original ending the studio wanted to kind of draw parallels betweenThe Dark KnightandJokerwithout there being direct ties. In particular, the ending to Joker 2 was very similar to what people saw in theaterswhen the film launchedearlier in October.
The original ending to what would have been Christopher Nolan’sJoker 2would have had Arthur mutilating himself while serving out his sentence in Arkham Asylum. In the version the studio envisioned, the manages to get a blade and takes it to his own mouth. He thencuts a smile into his faceand starts to laugh just as the movie fades to black. This was an obvious nod to Heath Ledger’s version of The Joker. However, Nolan didn’t like the idea because he apparently didn’t want there to be a kind of blending of the two storylines. He managed to nix the idea that Arthur Fleck would do the same thing as the nameless madman that is still seen as one of, if not the best, depictions of the “crown prince of crime” ever put on screen.
It appears that if Nolan had stayed with the film, that would not have been the ending at all.
It appears that if Nolan had stayed with the film, that would not have been the ending at all. However, for one reason or another, whether there was a clash with Nolan and the higher ups, or he simply decided he didn’t want to make another movie that involved a different Joker, or his struggles on other movies meant that Warner Bros wanted to go in another direction, Nolan departed and that allowed Todd Phillips and the writers to bring the storyline back to the forefront, with a few tweaks andchanges toJoker: Folie a Deux’s ending.
Was the True Joker Born?
The ending that Nolan eventually vetoed was even foreshadowed a bit in the first film as there were scenes whereArthur was pulling his own mouthopen to an impossible grin. He then does something similar to this world’s young Bruce Wayne. With those two scenes in the first film, it only makes sense that, should he really lose his mind completely, he would cut his mouth the ensure that he was always grinning broadly.
The following spoils the ending of Joker 2:
With Nolan departed and a new group helmingJoker 2, things took a turn. Rather than bringing the Arthur Fleck character into alignment The Dark Knight as a kind of homage, those in charge decided instead to at least hint that Fleck was never actually The Joker and was instead responsible for the madmanwho became the iconic villain. The ending that aired in theaters shows Arthur being murdered in Arkham by a young patient who is clearly inspired by the persona that Fleck took on and in fact, wants to be him.
Joker: Folie à Deux
Starring
Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Catherine Keener, Brendan Gleeson, Harry Lawtey, Steve Coogan, Leigh Gill and Zazie Beetz
Todd Phillips and Scott Silver
Directed By
Todd Phillips
After killing Fleck, ending that story once and for all, the young inmate then carves a smile into his own face. The intention here appears to be that this person turns into the Heath Ledger character, or at the very least the audience is supposed to believe he might be that character and that all of the Batman and Joker movieshave come full circleand bled into one another.
It’s possible that this was supposed to be how Todd Phillips' characters started a whole other franchise. There was talk about following Harley Quinn or even Harvey Dent into another movie. However, Phillips has said he’s done telling these stories, and with the commercial and critical failures ofJoker: Folie a Deuxit seems unlikely DC Comics fans will ever see another spinoff from these two movies.
