Joker Theory: Bruce Wayne Becomes a VILLAIN, Not Batman

The version of Bruce Wayne seen in Joker likely has a much darker future ahead of him than the legacy of Batman. Upon its debut in cinemas, Joker arrived on a wave of pre-release controversy rarely, if ever, seen by a major comic book movie. Concerns were raised that Joker‘s perceived sympathy towards the actions of its title character could inspire real-life copycats, with the movie’s depiction of Joker himself seen as reminiscent of recent mass shooters.

Despite such controversy in advance of Joker‘s release (and, indeed, arguably because of it), the movie would not only emerge as a monster hit, but would also become the first R-rated movie to join the billion-dollar club. The movie would also receive major awards season buzz, with Joaquin Phoenix’s performance as the increasingly unhinged Arthur Fleck enjoying massive acclaim, and earning him an Oscar for Best Actor at the 2020 Academy Awards. With the smoke now having largely cleared, it’s safe to call Joker a success story beyond even the most outlandish of expectations.

With Joker existing as a disconnected entity from other DC films, the movie presents its own unique interpretation of not just The Clown Prince of Crime, but of numerous other characters in the Batman wheelhouse. The movie’s versions of a young Bruce Wayne and his father Thomas, in particular, mark such a departure from past versions, that it is all but impossible to imagine the former growing up to don his famed cape and cowl. In point of fact, judging by the portrayal of the Waynes seen in Joker, it is far more likely that this Bruce Wayne has a future a lot closer to that of Joker himself.

Joker Presents Radically Different Versions Of Bruce & Thomas Wayne

One point that Todd Phillips has stressed is that the Gotham City seen in his movie is even more of a breeding ground for viciousness and evil than is usually the case, and Brett Cullen’s portrayal of Thomas Wayne serves as a major pillar of that. The Thomas Wayne seen in Joker is presented as an arrogant and cruel man, dismissing the impoverished citizens of Gotham as “clowns“, and violently rejecting Arthur’s efforts to reconnect with the man he believes to be his father. However misinformed Arthur may be in this regard, the Thomas Wayne played by Linus Roache in Batman Begins or Jeffrey Dean Morgan in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice would surely have let Arthur down a lot easier than Brett Cullen’s version, who thinks nothing of punching what he sees as a man totally beneath him in the face.

Joker‘s depiction of Bruce Wayne, played by Dante Pereira-Olson, also diverges greatly from past interpretations. This version of Bruce seems barely mentally present in every scene he appears in and shows not even the slightest hint of being unnerved when Arthur arrives at the gate of Wayne Manor. Even after this perfect stranger has reached through the gate to form Bruce’s lips into a smile, the young Wayne remains a completely blank slate. However, it’s in the movie’s final act where Joker‘s reinvention of Bruce Wayne becomes unmistakable.

Why Joker’s Bruce Wayne Probably Won’t Become Batman

The murder of his parents is widely understood to be the defining moment in the life of Bruce Wayne, setting him on the path to becoming Batman as a man. However, the young Bruce in Joker has, at best, a muted response to this famously horrendous event. When Thomas and Martha are shot during the film’s climactic street riot, Bruce’s only visible reaction is a reflexive flinch when a spray of his mother’s blood hits his face. Joker briefly flashes back to this moment when Arthur is in the mental institution in the final scene, to show the young Wayne not emotionally annihilated by the destruction of his world, but standing silently over the bodies of his two parents, with Arthur’s laughter here indicating it as the “joke” that he claims the psychiatrist opposite him wouldn’t get.

As it turns out, this scene could have been even darker than what was seen in theaters as well, with Kevin Smith revealing an alternate ending involving Bruce himself being killed alongside his parents. Though this aspect was not retained for the finished film, it signals Phillips’ mindset in making Joker as being one of pulling the rug from under the audience with a virtually unrecognizable take on Bruce Wayne. What’s more, it indicates that Phillips never intended for his Bruce Wayne to take on a life of crime fighting as an adult, and in fact, on the basis of Joker, a much more sinister future likely lies ahead the young Wayne.

Theory: Joker’s Bruce Wayne Becomes A Gotham Criminal

So, if the Bruce Wayne presented in Joker isn’t going to grow up to become Batman, what does fate have in store for him after his parent’s murder? Simply put, Joker heavily points to Bruce becoming a Gotham City criminal himself and does so with a number of different clues, the most prominent being his own father. The apple never falls far from the tree, as they say, and the Thomas Wayne seen in Joker is clearly not the kind of father to have made an effort to instill any sense of justice or social responsibility within his son. Growing up the progeny of this version of Thomas Wayne would surely steer any child down a far more hedonistic path without the intervention of a more altruistic guide, but then there’s the matter of Bruce’s interactions with other characters in the movie.

With the zombie-like personality Bruce is given in Joker, he’s far more of a blank slate (and therefore much more impressionable) than past presentations have been. Add in his bizarre meeting with Arthur and the murder of his parents in front of him, and this Bruce has been set up to see the world not as one in which people like him must stand up to battle widespread injustice, but as a war zone of abject cruelty in which only the strong survive – a point likely further instilled in him with the riot of Gotham’s downtrodden denizens, clad in clown masks, erupting mere blocks away at the end of Joker. From his experiences with Arthur, the population of Gotham City, and his own father, this Bruce Wayne has learned to take whatever he believes to be his, no matter what rules he must violate or how many people he must cut down in order to do it.

While Phillips has made clear that he would only be interested in returning for a sequel to Joker if it were to offer a compelling story to tell, that criteria may have already been met with the built-in story of a Bruce Wayne traveling down the path of evil rather than good. Whether he rises to become one of Gotham’s reigning crime bosses or adopts the identity of a twisted version of one of his own villains, this take on Bruce Wayne is not one likely to become anything resembling a hero. With the exceptionally nihilistic outlook presented by the film, Joker points to a future of remorseless villainy rather than selfless heroism for the young Bruce Wayne.