Joker 2 Director: Arthur Fleck Will ‘Never’ Become Comic Book Mastermind

From its very first appearance in the 1940s Batman #1, The Joker is an evil genius, a man whose madness allows him to concoct schemes that no one could have predicted. But the most recent Oscar-winning version of the character (and it’s weird to realize there’s more than one!) couldn’t be more different from that idea. Todd Phillips, director and writer (with Scott Silver) of the 2019 film jokerand maestro of the coming Joker: Foil for Tworecently went so far as to explain the difference between Arthur Fleck, the character he and Joaquin Phoenix developed for the screen, and the classic image of Batman’s arch-nemesis.

While almost every other Joker has been rightly described as “the Clown Prince of Crime,” Phillips said rich magazine that “we would never do that… Because Arthur is clearly not a criminal mastermind. He never was.” As Phoenix portrays it, Arthur Fleck is a deeply disturbed man who becomes the Joker almost reluctantly. It’s presented as a result of losing his support system and this man being fed up with the constant shame and humiliation he is subjected to by an uncaring society.

Still, that doesn’t seem to stop Arthur’s Joker from becoming something greater than just a lonely, sad man. As seen at the end of jokerArthur starts a movement when, dressed as the Joker, he murders talk show host Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro) on live television. Joker: Foil for Two picks up on that movement, which Phillips finds fascinating.

“Arthur has become this symbol for people,” Phillips explained. “This unwilling, unwitting symbol is now paying for the crimes of the first film, but at the same time finding the one thing he’s ever wanted, which is love. That’s always been what he’s been about, even though he’s been pushed and pulled in every direction. So we just tried to make the purest version of that.”