No, director Todd Phillips confirms Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) was never meant to be the real Joker; he was an "unwitting" inspiration, with the iconic "Joker" persona being a larger, societal idea that emerged from Arthur's tragedy, culminating in another figure (potentially a younger Bruce Wayne's future Joker) embodying the true, chaotic spirit at the end of Folie à Deux. Arthur was the catalyst, but the true Joker is an idea born from Gotham's despair, not just one man.
Though many have been related, a definitive history of the Joker has never been established in the comics, and his true name has never been confirmed. Nobody knows who he truly is.
Towards Joker: Folie à Deux's ending, Arthur confesses to the jury that he committed those crimes, and Joker isn't a split personality. In fact, Joker was simply nothing more than the persona Arthur Fleck adopted, and was never part of his mental illness, or meant to be the champion of the downtrodden.
After coming home, Arthur intercepted a letter from Penny to Thomas Wayne which stated Arthur was his son. Taking his parentage to the Wayne Manor, Arthur later met a young but emotionless Bruce Wayne, performing magic tricks to try and make him smile.
The sequel ends with Arthur's death by stabbing, making Arthur just Some Additional Guy the Joker Had Beef With, because the guy doing the stabbing is implied to be, yeah, the Joker All Along. We were never watching an origin story at all.
Director Todd Phillips insists he won't be making Joker 3, and that Joker: Folie A Deux will bring his take on the story to an end. Director Todd Phillips is back on the promotional trail, as the release date looms for his high-profile sequel, Joker: Folie A Deux.
He was a downtrodden man who had been pushed to his breaking point by the cruelty and uncaring of the world. Therefore, his transformation into the Joker represented the dark impulses we all have, and the potential for evil and malevolence that can result from a person pushed to their limit.
Joker Jr. was born after The Joker, who had manipulated Harley Quinn into re-entering a life of crime, impregnated her without her knowing. Harley out of shame refused to accept the child and gave him up. He grew up being transferred from various orphanages and foster homes to people who never loved him.
In comic books the Joker's father looms semi-large in the super-villain's loose backstory, but in Joker—the new origin story in theaters Friday—it's his mother who takes center stage. Penny Fleck (played by Frances Conroy) is a meek, sickly woman who relies on her son, Arthur (Joaquin Phoenix), to take care of her.
She is the wife of Thomas Wayne and the mother of Bruce Wayne. Joe Chill murders Bruce Wayne, rather than the boy's parents. Martha Wayne was so traumatized by the event she becomes the Joker. Her husband Thomas wished to gain revenge for his son's murder and becomes this reality's version of Batman.
Director Todd Phillips considered the character's body size as one way to represent his vulnerability. It is important to emphasize that unlike most people who diet to lose weight or who develop an eating disorder, Phoenix's weight loss was intended for the short amount of time it took to shoot the movie.
In Joker's case, pseudobulbar affect probably occurred secondary to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). A number of studies have established that TBI increases the risk of mood disorders, personality changes and substance use disorders.
He let Joker live for liberating him. Harvey was originally a good guy. Joker gave him an excuse to use, allowing Harvey to hide from his sins behind that coin. Harvey uses luck to trick himself into thinking he is the good guy when he is actually an evil killer in denial, consumed by darkness.
Despite both characters being hyped up as super crazy, neither is usually portrayed as all that crazy. They're both pretty aware of the world around them and their own actions. That being said The Joker is usually calculating and willfully malevolent, where Harley acts out of a genuinely twisted understanding of love.
No, Batman and Joker are not related.
Official confirmation will be required before we can consider Todd Phillips' Joker to be the brother of the much younger Bruce Wayne. Until then, they aren't officially related.
The Joker
He is Batman's arch-nemesis introduced in Batman #1 in 1940. Previously, Batman had been in Detectives Comics, but within a year he was allotted his own title. He's had as many reboots and redesigns as the Dark Knight himself, and his origin story has been retold to each generation in a different way.
JOKER'S LAUGHING DISEASE...
Arthur Fleck clearly had a diagnosis of pseudobulbar affect—uncontrollable episodes of crying and laughing, made worse by any emotional content. In the US alone, 1.5-2 million people suffer from this condition. During his laughter, there was always a deep sorrow and agony underneath.
While she cares about her son, she has shown to lie to him multiple occasions which leads to her death. Despite seemingly being kind to Arthur, it later transpires that she gossiped behind his back and scoffed at his idea of being a comedian and his notion that he was in the world to bring joy and laughter.
Martha Wayne appears in Joker, portrayed by Carrie Louise Putrello. Martha Wayne appears in The Batman (2022), portrayed by Stella Stocker. Similarly to her portrayal in Batman: Earth One, this version's maiden name is Arkham instead of Kane.
Nightwing wakes up and finds he has been tied to a bed. Harley shows him a pile of rejection letters and that her criminal past prevents her from getting rehired as a psychiatrist. Eventually, the two sleep together.
Harley Quinn is bisexual and has been in a relationship with The Joker, and, more recently, in a non-monogamous relationship with Poison Ivy. Other characters have been portrayed as bisexual in Batman media adaptations. Gotham's Barbara Kean and Tabitha Galavan are also confirmed to be bisexual.
Harley Quinn is the Joker's most famous accomplice and lover. They met when she was a psychiatrist studying mentally ill criminals. When she decided to analyse the Joker, the young psychiatrist sealed her fate. Ever since Harley got to know The Joker she found him to be attractive and he seemed to latch onto this.
The bathroom dance in Joker wasn't in the script, but it ended up defining the movie. An improvised moment became the axis around which Arthur Fleck's transformation spun, reshaping both the narrative and the cultural afterlife of the film.
Pseudobulbar affect, also called PBA, is a brain condition in which a person suddenly starts to laugh or cry and can't manage the reaction.
The Joker's mental condition is described as a form of "super sanity" in which he re-invents himself every day to suit his circumstances; he may be a harmless prankster one moment and a homicidal maniac the next. Joker is portrayed with a somewhat homosexual element, described as being indirectly "in love" with Batman.