‘Joker 2’ Ending Explained: Who Is the Guy That Kills Arthur?

Todd Phillips’ Joker was never meant to have a continuation, and the bad press might have proved it pretty explicitly.

Starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga as Joker and Harley Quinn respectively, the movie titled Joker: Folie Á Deux gave the most definite closure to the tragic story of one of DC’s most famous antagonists when Arthur Fleck aka Joker was brutally killed during his imprisonment.

In the movie’s final scene, an unnamed inmate at Arkham State Hospital stabs Joker to death and then carves a smile into his own face, laughing maniacally all the way long and making some sort of reference to Joker himself as the killer’s own source of inspiration.

Joker 2’s ending was also one of many reasons why the movie performed so miserably with both critics and audiences, though some viewers still saw something much more profound in Todd Phillips’ idea.

DC Fans Say Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker Isn’t Actually a Real Joker

While the movie’s last sequence also witnessed the last moment of Arthur Fleck’s life, most fans had an obvious thought of seeing the plain end of Joker’s story.

However, others speculated about those two movies actually being some sort of introduction for the real Joker that makes his first appearance in the sequel’s final scene, killing Joaquin Phoenix’s character.

“I personally think that this guy is the REAL joker who is inspired by Arthur Fleck and further becomes the joker that we all have always known. So, basically, these two movies were just about an ordinary criminal who inspired that guy to become the joker”, Redditor epicGamer69x wrote in a thread.

“It makes complete sense that someone else, younger and clearly even more unhinged, is taking up the mantle of Joker. The signs were always there, with people pointing out how much older Arthur was than Bruce”, PracticePlus176 agreed.

Todd Phillips Isn’t Planning Any More ‘Joker’ Sequels

Now that his sudden change of heart with a continuation for the hit movie proved itself not so successful, the director isn’t eager to return to the character’s story, with the sequel’s ending seemingly implying that Phillips in fact meant the most certain death for Joker.

“It’s not really where this movie is headed for me. I feel like my time in the DC Universe was these two films”, the director told The Hollywood Reporter not long after Joker: Folie Á Deux world premiere back in 2024.

The new Joker’s story, however, might be picked up by someone else who is currently running the DC Studios as a director or rather anyone from the industry, but so far there has been no news about the matter.