Joker: Folie á Deux left audiences shocked and angered by its big twist ending, which (SPOILERS) saw “Joker” himself, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) brutally stabbed to death in the halls of Arkham State Hospital by a young inmate admirer who wanted to take the mantle of Joker for himself. The “young inmate” character’s final act is to carve a large grin across the corners of his own mouth, becoming a new kind of Joker.
Actor Connor Storrie played the role of the young inmate at the end of Joker 2; he’s already broken his silence on social media about the role, and recently TMZ caught up with him to discuss the ending in greater detail. Arthur Fleck’s death scene started a whole wave of buzz and discussion: Storrie’s appearance throughout the film, and the act of his inmate cutting a grin into his face has given rise to the fan theory that the Joker films are a backdoor origin story for Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight. That’s a pretty big stretch, but one that even Connor Storrie doesn’t seem to dismiss, entirely:
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Joker 2 Actor Explains ‘New Joker’ Origin
“It definitely wasn’t shut down [theories about ‘New Joker], but it also wasn’t like, “Hey, look, this is your future or the future of this character,” Storrie explained.
The actor did his due diligence, however, by clarifying that Joker: Folie á Deux’s ending was more about making a final symbolic statement about the legacy of “Joker” growing beyond Arthur Fleck – something director Todd Phillips has echoed in his own statements about the sequel’s ending.
“For me, it very clear that it was Joaquin’s movie – this is following Arthur – so I definitely saw my place in that. It’s not like “Hey look, this is where I’m going, this is who I am! I saw it very much as a part of that story rather than it becoming anything else after that. Yeah that was very clear.” Storrie said. We do follow Arthur the entire time, so it really is his story no matter how it ends. It is the story of Arthur Fleck from sort of beginning to end.”
In the end, Storrie is just happy to be an up-and-coming young actor who’s getting some breakout fame due to Joker: Folie á Deux. The casting was such a milestone for him, that even if there was a deeper design on setting up some kind of prequel to Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight, Storrie wasn’t privy to such a plan – or thinking about anything beyond the immediate opportunity:
“I was just so excited to be there that I wasn’t even really considering what that could mean or where that could go,” Storrie explained. “I obviously know that the Joker has a huge following, I would even say cult following: Joker fans are very into it. But I was honestly just kind of like ‘I cannot believe I’m here right now; I cannot believe this is what I’m doing.’ It was also so under wraps that I really didn’t know anything else about the movie except for that part in it. Which I don’t think anyone on set knew anything about that. They were very serious about keeping everything on lock. I couldn’t say anything to anyone for two years – I booked that two years ago now… Just being a part of it… I wasn’t even thinking what that could mean.”
Connor Storrie’s bit role as ‘Real Joker’ will probably go down alongside actor Barry Keoghan’s scenes as The Joker in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. Keoghan got to do a mostly unseen voiceover cameo in the final cut of the film; however, deleted scenes of his full performance as Joker went viral, sparking all kinds of (misguided) speculation about how The Batman 2 will still use Keoghan’s Joker. Like this situation with Connor Storrie, the speculation is more wishful thinking from fans, than a likely possibility for the future.
Joker: Folie á Deux is now in theaters.
