Joker Doesn't Become Clown Prince Of Crime In Joker 2, Director Says

Joker: Folie A Deux continues the story of the failed comedian and clown actor Arthur Fleck as he becomes Joker, but the sequel won't have Arthur become the true Clown Price of Crime. Writer-director Todd Phillips told Empire, "We would never do that."

"Because Arthur clearly is not a criminal mastermind. He was never that," Phillips said. "Arthur has become this symbol to people. This unwilling, unwitting symbol now paying for the crimes of the first film, but at the same time finding the only thing he ever wanted, which was love. That's always what he’s been about, even though he's been pushed and pulled in all these directions. So we tried to just make the most pure version of that."

This is a notably different approach than Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, which featured Heath Ledger playing Joker as a criminal mastermind.