Regardless of what you think ofJoker, we can all agree Arthur Fleck is a different kind of Clown Prince of Crime – one with a lot of potential for the future. Though nothing has been set in stone yet, directorTodd Phillipshas previously saidthat there is a possibility for a sequel toJoker, so of course everyone is trying to figure out what it could be about. We know that Joaquin Phoenix’Arthur won’t crossover to the main DC timelineand fightRobert Pattinson’s Batman, so multiverse-answers are out of the question. But that doesn’t mean there are no more stories to be told in the Joker-verse.
WhileJokertook some serious liberties with the Batman mythos, the story was still influenced by seminal works from the comic-books likeThe Killing Joke. We have scouted the comics, the TV shows (I’m looking at you,Gotham!) and more to figure out what could inspireJoker 2: Electric Boogaloo– yes, that is the title. Here are five theories for a potential sequel.
Joker Becomes the Hero Gotham Needs
The moment Arthur Fleck shoots down the rich Gothamites in a subway and people actually cheered him, Todd Phillips put us on a path that leads to a very different dynamic between the Clown Prince of Crime and the Dark Knight of Gotham. ThroughoutJoker, we see the making of the Joker into an accidental antihero, and how he starts inspiring the downtrodden people of a rundown Gotham rise up against Wall Street and City Hall. People start wearing clown masks and makeup during protests and manifestations. Lastly, the movie ends on a city-wide riot with people fighting police, one clown mask-wearing individualonce againshooting down Thomas and Martha Wayne, and Joker being hailed as a savior by the Gothamite protesters.
What does this mean for a potential sequel? For one, Joker would no longer be a criminal with a few thugs, but an idea that spreads throughout Gotham. For this we can look back at the FOX showGothamand the character of Jerome Valeska, who became the show’s version of Joker. Jerome, through his criticism and attacks to the Gotham elite, quickly gained a cult following that treated him like an idol. IfJoker 2follows this idea, it would radically change Batman. Bruce Wayne would not be fighting against petty criminals, but an idea bigger than his own and a city that loves the man responsible for the death of his parents. Joker’s influence could even inspire other common citizens to rise up against the establishment, putting a twist to the idea that Batman created his villains by having the rogues gallery become followers of the clown.
There Is More Than One Joker
This is a theory that went around the Internet when the first trailer dropped and revealed a young Bruce Wayne. People were quick to point out the age difference between Arthur and Bruce, and how it would make fights between the two a bit complicated. The solution? Arthur is not the real Joker, but he inspires whoever becomes the real one. As mentioned,Jokershows us a version of its titular villain that is revered even before he starts calling himself Joker, becoming a symbol for unrest and rebellion in Gotham City. In the final moments of the film, a man dressed as a clown murders Thomas and Martha Wayne because they represent everything the Joker “movement” is fighting against.
If someone could be inspired by the Joker to go kill someone as important as Thomas Wayne, who is to say that someone else wouldn’t take up the mantle of Joker once Arthur grows old (or stays inside Arkham Asylum as we see in the final scene)? As introduced in the pages of Justice League #42 byGeoff JohnsandJason Fabokwe now know that there is not one, not two, but there are three different Jokers in the DC Universe. A sequel toJokercould follow Arthur as he becomes a symbol, and how he inspires different Gothamites to take up the mantle of the Clown Prince of Crime. There doesn’t have to be just one, as the Three Jokers theory could mean that the person that usually fights Batman is different from the criminal mastermind, that is different from the clown. This is even hinted at in the movie, right before the iconic (and repetitive) scene where the Waynes get murdered after exiting a theater. The movie they were seeing?Zorro, The Gay Blade, which is about Zorro’s son taking up the mantle before getting in an accident and being forced to let his gay twin brother, Ramon to become the new Zorro – though he refers to himself as Bunny Wigglesworth. Will the nextJokergo that far? Probably not, but we could see Arthur’s twin.
Joker Becomes Bruce’s Mentor
Jokerplays a lot with reality and fantasy. At several points in the movie we are led to believe that what we’ve seen is not real. We know that Arthur imagined his relationship with his neighbor Sophie, played byZazie Beetz, and we know this extended to his mother’s mental illness that led her to believe that Arthur was Thomas Wayne’s son. Though we find out that Arthur was adopted and not a Wayne bastard, his attempt to go to Wayne Manor to confront Thomas had Arthur come face-to-face with a young Bruce Wayne. As we see towards the end of the film, Thomas and Martha die (yet again), leaving Bruce as an orphan.
In the brief scene we see them together, Arthur seemed sympathetic towards Bruce. Now that they are both orphans, the sequel toJokercould see Arthur take a bigger interest in the young Wayne heir, seeing him as a victim of the system and society. This could lead to a scenario where Arthur becomes a sort of mentor to Bruce, showing him how life is outside Wayne Manor, with a father-son relationship blossoming between the traditional mortal enemies. Honestly, how twisted would it be if Bruce doesn’t become a masked vigilante, but an acolyte of the Joker? Sadly, this would most likely mean that Alfred won’t make it to the end of the film, as it is doubtful he would allow that relationship to grow. And it’s not like the Batman mythos haven’t explored a sort of friendship between the Bat and the Clown, as theGothamTV show had Bruce Wayne become friends with Jerome Valeska, fully knowing that Jerome’s brother Jeremiah tried to kill him multiple times. Of course, Jerome eventually shows his true colors and Bruce fights him, which could even be the story of an eventualJoker 3.
The White Knight Route
A big part ofJokerinvolved Thomas Wayne’s campaign as he ran for mayor of Gotham, and the public’s opinion of a member of the Gotham elite saying he cared about them. With Thomas dead and Arthur being hailed as a hero,Joker 2could potentially follow the limited seriesBatman: White Knight, bySean Murphy. The limited comic book run dealt with an alternate reality where the roles of Batman and the Joker are reversed, set in a Gotham where crime could not be stopped with fists. In this reality, Batman is the one often incarcerated in Arkham Asylum, as he is now considered a villain while Joker is a successful politician going by the name of Jack Napier.
With Thomas Wayne dead and Gotham City in chaos, it isn’t hard to imagine Arthur emerging as a popular representative of the common folk. Just as he accidentally found himself the image of a movement, Arthur could inadvertently end up a political candidate for mayor. By the time Bruce grows up and decides to dress up as a bat, Gotham could already be used to and conditioned to love a city run by Joker and his acolytes. This could be a fascinating Elseworld story we haven’t seen before: what if Batman is the villain? What if the common folk Batman used to keep safe by fighting crime is now the people being negatively affected by the caped crusader disrupting the status quo?
Arthur Never Became Joker
In the last scene of the movie we see Arthur talking to his social worker inside Arkham Asylum. He seems to be recounting the events of the movie to her. Because mere moments before we see Arthur being taken away from a police car and lifted up in the air by the protesters dressed as clowns, and Arthur dancing on top of that car, it seems weird that he ended up in Arkham all of a sudden.
It could be that he was caught some time later and imprisoned for the murder of Murray Franklin, but it could be that he was imprisoned long before that, possibly for the murder on the train that kickstarted the Joker movement – making the third act ofJokerall part of a lie or a hallucination from Arthur. It wouldn’t even be out of the question, as we saw previously in the film that he imagined all of his scenes with Sophie. We have also seen the character of Joker lie about his origin story inThe Dark Knightwhere he told two different stories about how he got his scars.
What would that mean for a sequel? Well, we know that Arthur aspires to be liked by everyone, and if he really imagined things, he already has the clown imagery in his mind as well as the dreams of violence and murder. InJoker 2decides to go this route, they could simply adapt one of the other origin stories from the comics, like having Arthur – now jobless – fall into a life of crime with a dangerous gang, say the Red Hood gang, where he eventually falls into a pit of chemicals and becomes the Clown Prince of Crime we all know.
