Batman fans torn over Dark Knight Joker's origin 'reveal'

In 1988's Batman: The Killing Joke, Joker tells his arch-nemesis and best friend that if he has a past, he'd much rather it be multiple choice.

This, I think it's fair to say, is a huge part of the reason so many of us love Joker - both as a Batman villain and a character in his own right.

Where Joker comes from, who he is, and why he does the awful things he does; these are things we're never supposed to understand. This mystery was a huge part of Heath Ledger's acclaimed portrayal in The Dark Knight.

Understandably, Batman fans are still pretty miffed at the mere suggestion that Heath Ledger's Joker now has something approaching an origin.

Given the pretty poor box office performance, it's not a stretch to imagine you gave Joker: Folie à Deux a miss when it came out last year.

It certainly wasn't exactly been a hit with critics or fans, but it's the ending which really ruffled feathers.

As you may or may not have heard, the Joker sequel ends with Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) renouncing the Joker persona and serving his time in Arkham.

Unfortunately, things end badly for Arthur when he's stabbed to death by a fellow inmate. An inmate who we then see in the background carving a smile into his face with the same weapon he used to kill Arthur.

Obviously this is open to interpretation, but a lot of fans have taken this ending to mean we're supposed to believe the inmate who killed Arthur is in fact Heath Ledger's Joker, and that the two Joker movies were his origin story all along.

Over on Reddit fans have rightfully pointed out there are multiple reasons these two universes can't be the same, implication alone has really annoyed a lot of people.

"I don't like the implication that the person who killed him is the Heath Ledger Joker," one fan wrote. "That is just dumb and kinda insulting."

Another argued: "Agreed , but I think the ending was attempting to portray the idea that anyone can be the joker, not necessarily 'the heath ledger joker'."

"Just straight up cringe, on every level," said another.

Safe to say we won't be getting a Joker 3 any time soon.