Joaquin Phoenix Had an Idea for Joker End Credits Scene

After two hours of dark, gritty violence and watching a man descend into madness, audiences who attended screenings of Joker over the weekend probably weren't sitting around waiting for a scene to play during the credits. It has become standard for comic book movies to include at least one, sometimes multiple post-credits scenes, teasing fans about what's to come or offering an explanation of something they missed. Joker director Todd Phillips made it clear from the jump that his villainous origin story was much different than any other comic movie that's been released to this point, so a post-credits scene always seemed out of the ordinary.

All that to say, Joker star Joaquin Phoenix did have an idea for something to occur during the film's credits. During an interview with GamesRadar, Phillips confirmed that there was never a plan for a post-credits scene, but that Phoenix pitched something at one point he couldn't help but at least consider.

"The idea of a post-credits scene in this movie would seem wrong, and a little too light for me," Phillips said. "That wouldn't have been something we did. But Joaquin [Phoenix] said it would be funny to put bloopers alongside the names like they did in the old days."

This credits scene never actually came to fruition, which is probably for the best. Considering everything from its tone to its ending, Joker and a post-credits scene weren't exactly the best fit for one another.

Phillips set out to make Joker as a response to the the current comedy landscape as well as the superhero movie genre as a whole.

"Go try to be funny nowadays with this woke culture," Phillips told Vanity Fair earlier this month. "There were articles written about why comedies don't work anymore—I'll tell you why, because all the f*cking funny guys are like, 'F*ck this sh*t, because I don't want to offend you.' It's hard to argue with 30 million people on Twitter. You just can't do it, right? So you just go, 'I'm out.' I'm out, and you know what? With all my comedies—I think that what comedies in general all have in common—is they're irreverent. So I go, 'How do I do something irreverent, but f*ck comedy? Oh I know, let's take the comic book movie universe and turn it on its head with this.' And so that's really where that came from."

Are you glad Phillips didn't include a post-credits scene in Joker? Let us know in the comments.