While Warner Bros. and DC Films’ Joker wasn’t the most cheerful of films to begin with, filmmaker and comic book fan Kevin Smith has claimed that the movie originally had an ever bleaker ending – one that would have seen Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck gunning down not only Thomas and Martha Wayne, but poor young Bruce Wayne himself.
“Somebody, I can’t say who told me, somebody told me…did you hear what the ending is supposed to be?” said Smith on his Fatman Beyond podcast. “I hope this is true, man, because I was like, “what the fuck?!” This is what I’m told by someone who works in the business and they’re in the know…I don’t know where he got it but it’s reliable information.”
“[Arthur Fleck] is in the hospital and he laughs, chuckles, and he says, ‘I was just thinking of something funny,'” Smith continues. “What was supposed to happen was you flashed back to the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne and it was him killing Thomas and Martha Wayne and the boy was screaming and crying and he turned to walk away and he turned back, shrugged, and shot the kid. Credits.’ What the fuck, man? Would you imagine, that’s literally the biggest fuck you to the audience. This world has no Batman, it’s all Joker’s. That’s so intense, I would have been outraged as a Batman fan and elated as a fan of film. “You ballsy motherfucker, you did it.’ But they didn’t do it.”
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As Smith notes, killing young Bruce Wayne would certainly have been a ballsy move on Todd Phillips’ part, and one that would firmly have shut the door on any speculation about a possible Batman appearance in a future Joker movie. What do you make of this alleged alternate ending? Let us know in the comments below, or on social media @FlickeringMyth…
Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix (The Sisters Brothers), Robert De Niro (Goodfellas), Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2), Bill Camp (Red Sparrow), Frances Conroy (American Horror Story), Brett Cullen (Narcos), Glenn Fleshler (Billions), Douglas Hodge (Penny Dreadful), Marc Maron (GLOW), Josh Pais (Motherless Brooklyn), Shea Whigham (Kong: Skull Island), Douglas Hodge (Robin Hood) and Dante Pereira-Olson (You Were Never Really Here).
