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Kevin Smith Says the Original Ending to Joker Was Much Darker (SPOILERS)

December 30, 2019 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Joker Joaquin Phoenix JOAQUIN PHOENIX as Arthur Fleck in Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures and BRON Creative’s “JOKER,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Niko Tavernise

Warning: Spoilers follow for Joker.

The ending of Joker left a lot of room for interpretation, and Kevin Smith has word that the original ending would have been much darker. Smith revealed on the latest episode of his Fatman Beyond podcast that he heard from someone in the know that the original finish to the film would have ended with a sequence in which Arthur Fleck murders none other than young Bruce Wayne.

In the filmed-and-released version of the ending, Arthur ends up in a mental hospital where it is left ambiguous as to whether the events of the film actually happened or were part of Arthur’s delusion. Smith said that according to his source, the ending would have included a flashback inside Joker’s mind to the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne — committed not by Arthur in the final film, but one of his followers — and would have capped off with Bruce’s death too. Highlights are below:

On the ending of the film: “The ending, like the last, least piece. I was like, ‘Eh, you didn’t need that.’ When he was out of the makeup in the hospital? Because I thought him on the f**king cars…I was like, ‘Jesus Christ, this is gonna win every f**king award imaginable! Look at this! I’m ready to paint my face and join the movement! Like, this is unbelivable, it’s a rallying cry!’ And then suddenly he’s without the makeup, and I’m like, ‘Oh, they’re trying to win awards.'”

On the original ending: “So there’s that last f**king scene. Somebody — I can’t say who told me. Somebody f**king told me. Because I don’t know if this is out there. Maybe it’s on the internet. Did you hear what the ending was supposed to be? … I hope this is f**king true, man. Because I was like, ‘What the f**k?’ This is what I was told by somebody who works in the business, and they’re in the know … it’s reliable information, but I don’t know if he’s supposed to share it. So I don’t know if I’m supposed to share it, but f**king, it’s too good to f**king not share…

“Originally, the ending in the hospital was different … So he’s in the hospital and he laughs, chuckles, and the lady goes, ‘What’s so funny?’ And he says, ‘I was just thinking of something funny.’ 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 [Bruce] was screaming and crying. And he turned to walk away, then he turned back, shrugged, and shot the kid — Credits.”

On his reaction to that ending: “Can you imagine? That’s literally the biggest f**k you to the audience. It’s like, ‘This world has no Batman. It’s all f**king Jokers.’ I was like, ‘That’s Network f**king deep, man!’ That’s f**king so intense. I would have been outraged as a Batman fan and elated as a fan of film. I was like, ‘You ballsy motherf**ker! Ohh, you did it!'”

article topics :

Joker, Kevin Smith, Jeremy Thomas