The original ending was vetoed by Christopher Nolan
Joker 2, aka Joker: Folie a Deux, has been the hot topic of discussion this week after its disastrous opening weekend.
A smaller domestic opening box office than Morbius, critical panning, and an audience score of just 31 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has not had the reaction that everyone involved would have hoped for.
One particular aspect that is bringing the ire of fans though is the ending.
To say the ending has been controversial would be an understatement, with various viral tweets slamming it.
One tweet quoted a video of the ending saying: “Joker 2 ending! It’s terrible! Stupid film, horrible ending.”
And another tweet said: “Joker 2 ending so bad it might create the real f*cking joker”.
Shockingly, it has been revealed from an insider source that the ending of the first Joker film was supposed to end the same way, before Christopher Nolan stepped in to stop it.
Spoiler warning for Joker 2 – if you read beyond this point you cannot yell at me.
The ending in question sees an inmate come up to Arthur Fleck, aka The Joker, and begin telling him a joke, with the punchline being him stabbing Arthur to death.
As the camera slowly zooms in on Arthur’s face, we see in the background the cackling inmate carve a ‘Chelsea smile’ into his face.
The scene where Arthur was originally set to cut the smile into his face (Warner Brothers)
This comes after Arthur renounces his role as ‘The Joker’.
It has been revealed in a Hollywood Reporter article that, according to an insider source, this was originally part of the ending for the 2019 Joker.
The ending would’ve seen Phoenix’s Joker carve his own face in front of a crowd of supporters.
The article goes on to say: “The Dark Knight filmmaker Christopher Nolan killed that idea, believing that only his Joker (Heath Ledger) should carve his face.
“But Nolan is no longer at the studio, and thus there was no resistance to the idea this time around.”
This news was posted to Twitter by DiscussingFilm, with one fan responding saying: “Going against the wishes of the man that gave us the best joker is so unbelievably cringe”.
Christopher Nolan wanted to honour Heath Ledger by having his Joker be the only one to carve their face (Warner Bros.)
There was not unanimous hatred of this aspect of the ending though.
One tweet read: “I like the face carve at the end of joker 2. The joker is an idea, not a person. Arthur might have created it, but he rejects it in the end and someone else takes on the mantle.”
Another fan disagreed with this, however, saying: “The fact that the movie is called Joker and they spend 99% of the movie un-doing the Joker persona in Arthur (the main character) is ridiculous.
“They used Nolan’s movies as justification for this garbage even existing by implying a connection at the end.”
Joker: Folie a Deux is in cinemas now.
Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros.
