While a number of talented actors have given us their own takes on Gotham's Clown Prince
of Crime, it's what we don't know about the character that makes his presence so intriguing
and terrifying.
Some fans have tried to fill in those gaps themselves, and the results are both absurd
and horrifying much like the Joker himself.
"Why so serious?"
Tim Burton's 1989 Batman not only heralded a new era in well-made, serious comic book
movies, but it also offered a major reimagining of a huge part of the Caped Crusader mythos.
The event that sent Bruce Wayne on the path to becoming Batman: the night his parents
were robbed and killed by an otherwise petty criminal named Joe Chill.
In the world of the '89 cinematic Batman, however, the Joker is responsible for the
ignoble end of Thomas and Martha Wayne.
That reveal only increased Bruce Wayne's loathing of the Joker, which motivated him to stop
this criminal menace, and helped elevate the Joker to arch-villain status.
Or, per one fan theory pertaining specifically to Burton's Batman, what if the Joker was
the same Joker from most other Batman media, and wasn't the guy who killed the Waynes?
Adherents to this theory say that since Batman is so obviously mentally and emotionally tortured,
he projects blame for the death of his parents onto the Joker because that's the guy he's
fighting.
The Dark Knight merely planted the Joker connection into his memory in order to explain his own
hatred for the guy.
"You think you're my greatest enemy?"
"Yes!
You're obsessed with me."
"No I'm not. Yes you are."
While some theories seem to balance on the fine line between fan fiction and canon, others
are…a little more out there.
Strap in kiddies, because we're in for a bumpy ride.
Remember that adorably creepy kid in The Shining?
Well, he wound up being the main character in Stephen King's sequel Doctor Sleep.
But that came out in 2013, a full five years after The Dark Knight in 2008.
So some fans developed an...alternative theory.
What if Danny Torrance grew up to be...the Joker?
One anonymous meme creator postulated just that, using the first of Joker's many stated
origin stories as evidence.
"My father was a drinker.
And one night, he goes off crazier than usual.
Mommy gets the kitchen knife to defend herself.
He doesn't like that."
Now, we're not seriously arguing that The Dark Knight was meant to be a sequel to The
Shining, but maybe Christopher Nolan's interpretation of the character was partially inspired by
the 1980 horror classic.
Nolan is a huge fan of Shining director Stanley Kubrick so much so that he helped restore
Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
And there's precedent, as Jack Nicholson's performance as Jack Torrance did help secure
him the role of the Joker in 1989's Batman.
So hey, anything's possible, right?
"You out of your f---ing mind?"
He looks like the Joker, he acts like the Joker, and the movie's named after the Joker,
but according to some fans, Joaquin Phoenix isn't playing the Joker in Joker.
At least, not the Joker we all know and love.
For starters, Phoenix is playing a character named Arthur Fleck.
While we've heard Joker's name as "Jack Napier" before, most notably in Tim Burton's Batman,
as well as Batman: The Animated Series, he's never had a single, 100% canonical origin
story.
And except for all the Joker trappings, the character of Arthur Fleck is a whole new creation.
"When you bring me out can you introduce me as 'Joker?'"
Some fans have theorized that the Joker Arthur becomes isn't the Joker that Batman fans know
at all, and that his taking on the name of Joker is a big red herring.
Mr. Fleck is also several decades older than the boy who would become Batman.
Phoenix is in his 40s, while Dante Pereira-Olson, who has been cast as "Young Bruce Wayne,"
is very young indeed, making it impossible to imagine these two growing up to have any
kind of rivalry.
This has caused fans to speculate that Phoenix's Arthur Fleck is not the real Joker, but his
clownish criminal predecessor, who inspires the true Joker years later, Others have floated
a different theory that Arthur's Joker just doesn't age, or die, at all.
Despite its sometimes realistic take on crime, Batman is still about an oddly dressed billionaire
vigilante who tracks down weirdo, theatrical villains.
Like a guy in a question-mark-covered one-piece, and an umbrella-wielding penguin man.
In other words, it also wouldn't be completely absurd if the Joker, everybody's favorite
crazed criminal clown, turned out to be immortal.
But don't take our word for it this is actually something that's been explored in the comics.
According to Batman #37, released in 2014 as part of the "Endgame" arc, the Joker can
and will live forever.
In the comic, Commissioner Gordon uncovers old newspaper photos depicting the Joker committing
crimes in 1910 and 1946.
He assumes the Joker doctored the pictures, but after the Joker endures a seemingly fatal
gunshot blast, it would seem the trickster is telling the truth.
By the end of "Endgame," both Batman and the Joker lay dead, but then maybe the Joker just
wants everybody to think he's dead, since that's definitely a mistake Gotham City has
made before.
"I think you and I are destined to do this forever."
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