Why The Joker Doesn’t Have an Official Origin Story (And Doesn’t Need One)

Joker: Folie á Deux left a lot of viewers feeling mad. Mad, mad. Most people coming to see Joker 2 on opening weekend expect an expansion of Todd Phillips’ Joker origin story, wherein the deeply troubled and unstable man known as Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) would fully transform into the criminal mastermind and avatar of chaos that is The Joker, complete with a Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga) by his side. Instead, they got a Joker sequel that was very much a referendum on the first film, and the public reaction to it – with musical numbers thrown in for good measure. By the end, Folie á Deux made it clear that Arthur Fleck’s story is not the story of how The Joker from Batman lore was created. 

WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW! 

Joker 2 Ending Explained – In the final scene of Joker: Folie á Deux Arthur Fleck is approached by another inmate in the hallway of Akrham State Hospital – a young man who has been watching him from a distance all throughout the movie. The young inmate tells Arthur a joke, which ends with the same “You get what you deserve!” punchline Arthur used when killing TV host Murray Franklin; this time however, Arthur is the victim, as the young inmate brutally stabs him multiple times, leaving him dead on the floor. The inmate is heard in the background, carving a smile into the corners of his mouth, while laughing manically. The indication is that the mantle of “Joker” isn’t going to die with Arthur, but will pass on to this new psychopath. Phillips even seemed to make leave fans with some pointed ambiguity about Joker 2’s ending revealing the origin of Heath Ledger’s Joker. 

A lot of viewers and critics are now in uproar about Todd Phillips’ entire Joker movie series, claiming that the Folie á Deux invalidates the entire reason for the films to exist in the first place: to give The Joker an official origin story.

Why The Joker Has No Origin (And Doesn’t Need One) 

Heath Ledger’s Joker didn’t just strike such a massive chord with viewers because of the epic performance Ledger gave. Christopher Nolan’s storyline in The Dark Knight (2008) put a dark spotlight on the modern characterization of The Joker: an agent of chaos, who has an almost supernatural air about him since no one can figure out who he really is, or where he really comes from. The Dark Knight was heavily influenced by 1980s DC comic book stories like Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke; Moore’s story has been particularly controversial since it is technically a non-canon story, which has come to define The Joker’s origin story in key ways. The entire premise of Joker being a failed comedian who got into a crime heist (as “The Red Hood”) and ended up in a vat of chemicals has influenced many subsequent comic stories, as well as films like Batman (1989) or TV shows like Gotham. 

However, The Killing Joke always came with the subtext that Joker was an unreliable narrator (not to mention a cunning sociopath), an idea that some of the better DC storytellers (like Nolan) have tapped into to make us constantly question anything we think we know about Joker. Since The Dark Knight’s release, Ledger’s Joker has arguably been a big influence on the comics, which have since settled on framing Joker as a malevolent sociopath opposite to Batman (see: Three Jokers), while his origin is once again vague and uncertain, with only Batman seeming to know his true identity. 

And therein lies the point: By now it seems that fans overwhelmingly agree that this aspect of The Joker – the unknown origin, pure agent of mayhem and chaos – has become core to the character, and does not need to be tampered with. Even Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix – the duo who won Oscars and earned a billion dollars at the box office for telling a Joker origin story – have reset the scales on trying to define the villain. 

Whatever debates we may have about The Joker – whether on the screen or the page – it seems this is one we can now put to rest: The world just doesn’t need a Joker origin story. Being the larger-than-life psychopath Batman has to deal with is all the character needs to be. 

Joker: Folie á Deux is now in theaters if you still want to go that route. Joker (2019) is streaming on Max.