Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros Pictures
Topics: Batman, DC, TV And Film
The ending of Joker: Folie à Deux has left many cinema goers feeling disappointed. And that’s putting it mildly.
Yet it seems that Batman fans predicted how Arthur Fleck’s story would end years ago.
From this point onwards, spoilers for Joker: Folie à Deux will appear; proceed at your own risk.
Before the sequel to Joker was even released, fans were concerned with the creative direction the film was taking.
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The Joker: Folie à Deux promised so much...
By incorporating musical numbers, it felt like a dramatic deviation from what had gone before.
Whether it’s a musical or not is the least of the film’s problems, according to fans.
What’s most polarising about Joker: Folie à Deux is its ending.
The reason it’s causing such division is because it seemingly reveals The Dark Knight’s Joker origins, a move that feels amiss and in conflict with Arthur Fleck’s original story.
At the end of the sequel, Fleck is stabbed to death in Arkham by another inmate, an inmate who we’ve seen lurking but never really got to know.
Finally, this unknown element emerges from the shadows, not only killing Fleck but also taking up the mantle of the Joker.
The uncomfortable connection to The Dark Knight comes when the Joker, now properly revealed, cuts in a ‘Glasgow smile’.
We can’t help but think of Heath Ledger’s Joker.
Even for viewers who aren’t die-hard Batman fans, this reveal feels “weird” and out of place for what the Joker set up.
Yet, while it’s thrown many for a loop, it turns out that some fans had called this kind of finale five years ago.
As shown on an old Reddit post, one user suggested that Fleck was merely the “inspiration” for the true Joker.
“Imo, the man who would become the Joker watched Arthur Fleck and became inspired,” they remarked.
Since the sequel has been released, fans are returning to this post to recognise just how accurate a prediction it was.
“Funny because four years later it’s true,” commented Cell-Based-Meat.
Everyone is shocked at “how right” the OP was given how weird a theory it seemed at the time.
Joker: Folie à Deux was meant to be the crowning glory of the first film, yet it’s become a joke, one we wish we’d never heard.
Its awful punchline, not to mention its various other failings, have earned it the title of being the worst film of 2024.