Joker 2 director reveals Arthur Fleck will “never” become the Clown Prince

The director of Joker and Folie à Deux, Todd Phillips, says the Arthur Fleck character will “never” embrace the Clown Prince of Crime persona.

As one of the most dynamic antagonists in fiction, Joker has allowed writers to redefine villainy in myriad ways for decades. The character’s live-action portrayals don’t fail in this regard, either.

Jack Nicholson’s Joker imagined him as an over-the-top gangster. In The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger played the role of terrorist, an anarchist who “wanted to watch the world burn.” Jared Leto in Suicide Squad assumed the part of a tatted-up crime boss.

However, Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck didn’t play at being a criminal mastermind in Joker. Akin to the character’s The Killing Joke “backstory,” Arthur was a failed comedian whose emotional struggles engendered unspeakable acts of violence.

The second film will follow that same thread, pulling viewers through his psyche as he navigates Arkham Asylum alongside Harley Quinn. As such, according to Todd Phillips, audiences shouldn’t expect Arthur to embrace Joker’s Clown Prince of Crime moniker.

Warner Bros.

Phillips told Empire, “We would never do that because Arthur clearly is not a criminal mastermind. He was never that.” Still, his actions in the first film have turned him into a “symbol to people.”

On top of doing time for his crimes, Arthur will find in Arkham “the only thing he ever wanted, which was love.” Phillips continued, “That’s always what he’s been about, even though he’s been pushed and pulled in all these directions. So we tried to just make the most pure version of that.”

This seems a fitting lens through which to view this particular version of the character. Unlike other iterations of Joker, Arthur Fleck has no grand aspirations about criminal enterprising. And since he’s not battling a Batman, the primary obstacle he must overcome is himself.

Fans can see how this all plays out when Joker: Folie à Deux hits theaters on October 4.