Joker: Folie A Deux’s Terrible Ending Is One Christopher Nolan Vetoed

In case you wanted another reason to dislike Joker: Folie a Deux, one of the worst comic book movies in the last twenty years, here’s another fun fact for you.

The ending of the film (spoilers ahead) is one of the most universally disliked aspects of Joker: Folie a Deux, a miserable end for Arthur Fleck and the alleged birth of the “real” Joker, according to some. In it, Fleck is stabbed by a former fanboy and then out of focus, we see him carve a smile into his own face. Cheesy, but there’s also a history to this moment.

According to THR, this was supposed to be the ending of the original Joker, where Arthur, in front of a crowed of supporters, carved a smile into his face. This, of course, is something that is inextricably linked to Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight (“wanna know how I got these scars?) and is not usually how the traditional Joker smile is portrayed.

As such, back then, none other that Christopher Nolan stepped in with WB and Todd Phillips to kill that idea, wanting to leave that as Ledger’s Joker’s signature only. Even though this was 11 years after The Dark Knight, Nolan still shot it down, and I think most would agree that was the right call.

But now in 2024, Christopher Nolan is no longer making movies with WB after a falling out in 2021 about Tenet’s theatrical release. He went on to make Oscar-winner Oppenheimer with Universal Pictures. Since he left, however, he was no longer there to reject the carved smile this time around, which is how it made it into the ending, even if it was somewhat out of focus.

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“He’s always trusted his gut — and it’s gotten him pretty far. He thought people would get the joke,” a source told THR about Phillips’ idea for the smile. But…no, they didn’t. No one liked that.

There is not going to be another film set in this universe about the “rise of the true Joker” or anything like that. Phillips has very publicly declared he is done with DC, and there is no real reason to continue on this Joker “Elseworld” universe after the colossal failure of Folie a Deux. DC is now moving on to James Gunn’s new widespread DC universe and its main Elseworld project is the hugely popular The Batman sub-verse from Matt Reeves, currently airing The Penguin, the much beloved HBO show. No need for Joker, at least that Joker, to live on. The running theory is that The Batman 2 will feature Barry Keoghan’s briefly teased Joker in a main role this time. No more Joaquin Phoenix, who is, of course, dead anyway.

The ending is only one of many problems with Joker: Folie a Deux, but it’s interesting to know there’s history as to why part of it was bad. 16 years later, the moment still seems like a stain on 2008’s Dark Knight, and a bad attempt at a link to that film.

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