Commentary — ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ And ‘The Dark Knight’ Share Some Overlap

With so many adaptations of Batman and his supporting cast, there’s bound to be some overlap in the types of stories being told. What’s great about this plethora of material is that the producers always try to differ in tone, but inevitably, the plots more or less have similarities regardless of the other changes being made. At their core, these characters represent specific things, and so trying to tell a story with them is bound to fall into familiar territory. Even in films as different as Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and Todd Phillips’s Joker films can be viewed as trajectory.

Joker: Folie à Deux picks up where the original left off as Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is in prison and on trial for murder. He’s being prosecuted by Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey), the man who will infamously become the villain Two-Face. At some point during the trial, an explosion rocks the courtroom, allowing Arthur to escape. Harvey Dent is injured in the explosion, giving him his disfigured appearance that will result in Two-Face’s rise.

The relationship between Harvey Dent and Joker has taken many different forms. In The Dark Knight, Harvey (played by Aaron Eckhart) works with Batman (Christian Bale) to apprehend Joker (Heath Ledger) and throw him in jail. Unfortunately, this is all part of Joker’s plan, and it results in Harvey’s disfigurement after being held hostage in a warehouse. This is just one of many ways Two-Face’s origin can unfold, but the plot trajectory has a lot of overlap with the Joker sequel. It’s not hard to imagine The Dark Knight story taking a different turn if the Joker never broke out of his jail cell. He would be put on trial the same way Arthur Fleck was and would also be prosecuted by Harvey Dent. In that way, Joker: Folie à Deux can be viewed as a sort of “what if” story in relation to The Dark Knight.

Joker: Folie à Deux is now streaming on Max.