SPOILER ALERT: This article contains major spoilers for the ending of “Joker: Foil A Two‘ is now playing in theaters.

Joaquin Phoenix dons his clown makeup again in “Joker: Folie à Deux,” the follow-up to his 2019 Oscar-winning performance. This time he’s joined by fellow Oscar winner Lady Gaga, who plays another iconic DC Comics villain , Harley Quinn.

The comic book sequel takes place after the events of ‘Joker’, with Phoenix’s killer clown Arthur Fleck on trial for the murders he committed in the first film. His lawyer, played by Catherine Keener, argues that Arthur and Joker are two different people. She claims that after years of child abuse, Arthur has developed an alter ego separate from his own mind. The prosecution is led by Assistant District Attorney Harvey Dent, played by “Industry” star Harry Lawtey, later known as the disfigured villain Two Face in the Batman comics.

The jury sides with Dent and convicts Arthur of murder. However, before the trial can continue, a bomb explodes outside the courtroom, throwing the city into chaos. Arthur briefly escapes with the help of two Joker devotees, but he is soon captured by the police and taken back to Arkham Asylum. It also appears that Harvey’s face was injured in the courtroom explosion, potentially making him Two Face in the future.

The film ends on a bloody note, as Arthur is ambushed the next day by a laughing, clearly insane Arkham patient. The prisoner, played by Connor Storrie, tells Arthur a joke and then stabs him repeatedly in the stomach. Arthur falls over, bleeding profusely, and appears to die. Behind him, the nameless psychopath laughs uncontrollably and puts a Glasgow smile on his face with a knife.

Many DC fans have theorized that Arthur’s killer could be an homage to Heath Ledger’s Joker in “The Dark Knight,” as they both have the same gnarly scars around their mouths. Todd Phillips’ ‘Joker’ trilogy and Christopher Nolan’s ‘Batman’ trilogy are set in different time periods and universes, so it’s unlikely that Storrie’s character is at all related to Ledger’s.

In “The Dark Knight,” Ledger’s Joker backstory is largely unknown, and he gives varying accounts of how he acquired his facial scars. Early in the film he says that his father drunkenly cut him as a child, but later he says that the scars were self-inflicted after his wife developed a Glaswegian smile due to her gambling debt. “The Dark Knight” was also set in the modern era of the 2000s, while the “Joker” films were set in the 1980s, providing little evidence that the “Folie a Deux” character is anything more than a nod to Ledger’s Oscar-winning role.

It looks like Phoenix is ​​hanging up his red suit and clown makeup with “Folie à Deux.” The ‘Joker’ films have existed in their own world, without any connection to Matt Reeves’ ‘The Batman’ or James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebooted DC Universe, so it’s unlikely that Phoenix’s character will be revived come or will be reconsidered. The next time we see a live-action Joker could be when Barry Keoghan finally reprises his role from the final scene of “The Batman,” perhaps in Reeves’ 2026 sequel.