Kevin Smith Claims To Know The Original (And Much Darker) Ending To ‘Joker’

Joker came out nearly three months ago, and since the Golden Globe-nominated movie made over $1 billion at the worldwide box office, there’s a safe bet you’ve seen it. But just in case you’re waiting to watch it while the ball is dropping on New Year’s, because you’re an insane person, here’s a spoiler warning: after shooting Murray Franklin (played by Robert De Niro) on his show, the Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) inspires riots to break out across Gotham. One rioter corners the billionaire Wayne family — father Thomas, mother Martha (don’t say that name), and son Bruce — in an alley, and shoots the parents; it’s a scene we’ve watched before in seemingly a thousand other movies, but according to Kevin Smith, Joker originally had a much darker fate for the Waynes.

On a recent episode of the Fatman Beyond podcast, the Jay and Silent Bob Reboot director was told by Someone In the Know that “the ending in the hospital was different.” While in Arkham, Arthur Fleck/the Joker starts laughing in front of a confused psychiatrist. She asks him, “What’s so funny” He responds, “I was just thinking of something funny.” Here’s where the endings differ. “What was supposed to happen was you flashed back to the death or Thomas and Martha Wayne and it was him killing Thomas and Martha Wayne and the boy was screaming and crying and he turned to walk away and he turned back, shrugged, and shot the kid. Credits,” Smith said.

That’s, uh, quite the fade to black, as or Silent Bob accurately put it, “What the f*ck, man This world has no Batman.” You can understand why Warner Bros. would decline to use this ending, assuming Smith’s source is accurate. Even Christopher Nolan couldn’t kill Batman. You can listen to the Joker talk around 16:30 in the video below.