This story will dig into spoilers for the new movie Joker: Folie a Deux. This is only for people who have seen the movie, or who don’t mind hearing plot details. Proceed with caution.
Todd Phillips has made two Joker movies set in the DC universe that play fast and loose regarding their connections to Batman. The only real appearance of the Caped Crusader happens in the first Joker, when Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) approaches a young Bruce Wayne, who he thinks might be his half-brother. By the end of Joker: Folie a Deux, it’s clear that Fleck is not the criminal mastermind who will lock horns with Batman over the years. In fact, Arthur might have been murdered by the guy who becomes Joker… if that person actually goes on to become The Joker, at all.
That’s not to say that there aren’t tangible inclusions of Batman lore in the Todd Phillips movies. We get Arkham Asylum in Joker: Folie a Deux, and Lady Gaga plays a version of Harley Quinn that doesn’t share the character’s origin, but still had an effect on the singer-actress. And throughout Joker: Folie a Deux, the Clown Prince is countered in court by Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey), the district attorney who, Batman fans know, goes on to become the villain Two-Face.
Even here, though, Phillips and screenwriter Scott Silver manipulate the comic origins of the character to better suit their narrative. In the comics, Dent gets acid splashed on his face in court, turning him into Two-Face. In Joker: Folie a Deux, Dent gets caught in an explosion that rocks the courtroom. And yes, you can see a brief glimpse of him in the aftermath, with half of his face gone.
When Joker: Folie a Deux cinematographer Lawrence Sher stopped by the ReelBlend podcast to discuss his work on the film, we asked him to confirm that this is Two-Face’s origin in this cinematic world, Sher told us:
I think so. Half his face is all bloody. I think so. I mean, it’s subtle. It's not crazy. But yeah, that's what it's meant to be. That's what I think it's meant to be, one hundred percent.
What does this mean? Not much. As I mentioned, Joker and Joker: Folie a Deux aren’t that interested in fleshing out the Batman world of these movies. Unlike, say, the HBO series The Penguin – which is acting as a bridge between two of Matt Reeves’ movies – the Joker films aren’t building toward anything. We’ll never see the outcome of this Harvey’s conversion. It’s just a unique detail to add to the pile.
Also, Christopher Nolan also changed Two-Face’s origin when he used the character in The Dark Knight. Remember this scene?
Did you catch the “birth” of Two-Face in Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie a Deux? It’s a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, but it’s there, and would be a cool twist on the lore, if these movies cared about that kind of stuff. But they don’t. Oh well. There’s a new episode of The Penguin on HBO on Sunday. Watch that.
