Warning: This article contains spoilers for Joker: Folie A Deux!
Five years after introducing Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck, Joker: Folie a Deux
reveals who could be his replacement as the real Joker of the DC Universe. when Joker Released in 2019, it was clear from the jump that director Todd Phillips was putting his own spin on the Clown Prince of Crime. There were quite a few changes to the character from the comics, including giving him a different name. Arthur Fleck also did not have any facial scars like many iterations of Joker.
however, Joker’s Differences from DC Comics canon did not stop the movie from becoming a critical and financial success. In fact, until this summer, Joker was the highest-grossing R-rated movie in the world, holding the title until Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine saved it. That success paved the way for a sequel, and now Phoenix and Phillips have reunited to continue the story of this version of Joker. Surprisingly, the Joker: Folie A Deux The end sets up a second Joker – one that will be more familiar to the audience.
The young inmate kills Arthur Fleck and mutilates himself
The mysterious character presents himself with a very specific type of wound
In the final scene of Joker: Folie A DeuxArthur Fleck is walking down a hallway at Arkham State Hospital when he is approached by a character credited simply as Young Inmate (played by Connor Storrie). The prisoner asks Arthur if he can tell a joke. It starts off with a typical joke setup, talking about a man walking into a bar, however It ends with the inmate stabbing Arthur multiple times in the stomachLeaving Phoenix’s character to bleed out in the hallway.
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Storrie’s inmate then begins to cackle ghoulishly, stumbling in the background while the camera stays focused on Arthur. Arthur slowly dies on the floor of Arkham, and in the background, The young prisoner uses the knife with which he stabbed Arthur to give himself a Glasgow smile – Which means he cuts the corners of his mouth to make scars that resemble a permanent smile. If he survives, he will have scars much like Heath Ledger’s Joker character, but the fate of the character is not revealed because the movie ends with him still laughing and bleeding in the background.
Joker: Folie A Deux The young prisoner’s reason for killing Arthur is not clearly stated, but it does not come from nowhere either. Glimpses of Storry’s character are shown throughout the movie, and he is often depicted staring at Arthur. The inmate’s feelings towards Arthur are left to interpretationBut one way to read it is that he sees through Arthur’s Joker facade from the jump and doesn’t believe that Arthur deserves the attention he gets. Another interpretation is that the inmate modernizes Arthur to the point that he wants to kill him to become Joker. Fortunately, the inmate’s joke offers further insight.
The joke of the young prisoner explained
It mirrors the climactic scene of the first movie
Although the young inmate’s joke begins innocently enough, it ends with Storrie’s character stabbing Arthur while shouting, “You get what you deserve!” This mirrors the joke Arthur makes in the first movie right before he kills Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro). Like the young inmate, Arthur’s joke starts with a classic setup, but then becomes much more specific to his life as it goes along. Arthur’s anger increases as he delivers the “joke” until he finally shoots and kills Murray Franklin.
What do you get when you cross a mentally ill person alone with a society that abandons him and treats him like garbage? I’ll tell you what you get – you get what you really deserve!
The ultimate joke of Joker: Folie A Deux Plays out a little differently than its predecessor. The joke of the young prisoner is much longer and more complicated than the joke of Arthur; It is less about his own life and the way he was treated by society and more about his feelings for Arthur. The young prisoner is arguably a stand-in for Joker’s more fanatical followers, who probably feel betrayed by Arthur’s denouncing of his alter ego and the chaos it inspires. However, unlike Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn, who abandons Arthur, the young inmate’s reaction is violence – he gives Arthur what he thinks the man deserves, which is death.
The joke told by Storrie’s character is an evolution of Arthur’s own attempt at humor from the first movie, seemingly as a way to emphasize that He himself is ready to do what Arthur cannot: become the Joker, permanently. Not just for the cameras and not just for attention, but in every possible way, which includes killing those he believes have wronged him and scarring himself so he can’t wash away the Joker persona like Arthur. It’s a full-circle moment from both movies, driving home the central theme that violence begs violence.
Is this young inmate the real Joker of the Batman Universe?
There is a lot of evidence in Joker: Folie a Deux
Between the laughter, the senseless violence and the Glasgow smile, the character already has more hallmarks of the classic Batman villain than Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck. Further, Arthur typically resorted to violence when he was very emotional, but the young inmate killing Arthur feels more like the chaotic violence associated with Joker from DC canon. All this is to say, It sure seems like it Joker: Folie A Deux Establishes Storrie’s young inmate as the real Joker of the DC universeAnd it would make sense to read the movie’s ending that way.
If that’s the case, it gives the particular Batman universe a much more comics-accurate version of the Joker, one that could theoretically exist until Bruce Wayne becomes the Dark Knight and becomes his nemesis. further, Storrie’s character gives the universe’s Batman a Joker who is closer in age to himWhich would make this villain a more formidable foe for the Caped Crusader than Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck. In addition, when Batman makes his debut in Gotham, the scars of the inmate will be healed, further establishing him as the version of Joker that most know.
All witnesses in Joker: Folie A Deux Seems to point to the young inmate being the real Joker.
The young inmate being the real Joker also ties into the larger themes of the movie and the franchise as a whole. much of Joker: Folie A Deux is wrestling with the sensationalist rhetoric the original movie inspired, and the fact that Phillips and Phoenix had little to no control over the conversations surrounding the first film once it premiered. Similarly, Arthur has no control over the Joker persona – the “shadow” he unleashes on the world – and it ends up leading to his death, all so that someone else can become the real Joker. So, all the evidence in Joker: Folie A Deux Seems to point to the young inmate being the real Joker.
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