Joker: Folie à DeuxEnding Explained: What Is the Sequel’s Connection to Batman?

Mar. 15, 2025

Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga in ‘Joker: Folie a Deux’.Photo:Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc

Warning: Spoilers forJoker: Folie à Deuxfollow.

All of those characters are missing fromFolie à Deux, in which Arthur is facing the death penalty for his crimes in the first film. At Arkham State Hospital where he’s incarcerated, he “not only stumbles upon true love, but also finds the music that’s always been inside him,” per an official synopsis.

Lady Gagatakes over fromMargot Robbieas that true love, a singing-and-dancing Harleen “Lee” Quinzel a.k.a. Harley Quinn. Also in theFolie à Deuxcast isHarry Lawteyas district attorney Harvey Dent, determined to bring Arthur to justice for the five murders he committed inJoker. (No one is aware that Arthur also killed his mother, Frances Conroy’s Penny.)

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Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix in ‘Joker: Folie a Deux’.Niko Tavernise

Niko Tavernise

Arthur’s trial is peppered with twists and turns — and lavish musical numbers, which Phillips, Phoenix and Gaga have explained are outward expressions of the characters’ inner madness — that ultimately lead to his guilty conviction. Before the jury can finish reading his sentence, though, all hell breaks loose: a car bomb destroys much of the courthouse wall, killing and injuring many inside.

Among those harmed is Harvey Dent. In the movie’s only overt nod to the comic books, in which Dent becomes Batman enemy Two-Face, the character is seen crumpled and dazed following the explosion with the left side of his face severely burned.

After Arthur escapes the courthouse and finds Lee, she ends their love affair because during the trial he had denounced that Arthur Fleck and the Joker are two different people. She walks away as a heartbroken Arthur is taken back to Arkham.

Arthur’s death at the hands of a maniacal inmate with smile-like scars (much likeHeath Ledger’s Joker inChristopher Nolan’s 2012 hitThe Dark Knight) implies that said inmate is the Joker who becomes Batman’s archenemy. Or, depending on interpretation, the ending serves to remind audiences that violence begets violence, and that it matters less who Arthur’s killer was and more what Arthur inspired or exposed in Gotham society.

Phillips also reportedly quipped, “If you don’t understand it, email me.”

Joker: Folie à Deux, which costars Brendan Gleeson, Leigh Gill, Zazie Beetz, Sharon Washington and Steve Coogan, is in theaters now.

source: people.com