Todd Phillips Reveals Fate of Zazie Beetz' Character in Joker

It’s been a month since Todd Phillips’ divisive Joker hit theaters, breaking the record for the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all-time, and fans still have loads of questions. One that co-writer/director Todd Phillips has finally cleared up for audiences is the fate of Zazie Beetz’ Sophie Dumond.

Warning: Major Spoilers Ahead for Joker

Beetz’ Sophie is Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix)’s neighbor down the hall, a single mother struggling to get by in the crime and poverty-stricken Gotham City. After killing some businessman on a subway, he finally approached Sophie and expressed his feelings for her, starting a series of events in which they date and spend time together. However, after killing his mother in a rage following the revelation he was adopted, he visits Sophie’s apartment unannounced, where it is revealed he was imagining spending time with Sophie and she has no clue who he is.

He then leaves her apartment still distraught, with no true explanation given to her fate, but in an interview with Indie Wire, Phillips cleared the air.

“He doesn’t kill her, definitively,” he said. “As the filmmaker and the writer I am saying he doesn’t kill her. We like the idea that it’s almost like a litmus test for the audience to say, ‘how crazy is he?’ Most people that I’ve spoken to think he didn’t kill her because they understand the idea that he only kills people that did him wrong. She had nothing to do with it. Most people understood that, even as a villain, he was living by a certain code. Of course he didn’t kill this woman down the hall.”

Director Todd Phillips’ original, standalone origin story Joker explores the world of—and according to—Arthur Fleck. Indelibly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, Arthur is a man facing the cruelty and outright scorn of society, along with the indifference of a system that allows him to spiral from vulnerability into depravity. A clown-for-hire by day, he strives to be a stand-up comic at night…but finds that the joke always seems to be on him. He’s out of tune with everyone around him, as evidenced by his uncontrollable, inappropriate laughter, which gains momentum as he attempts to contain it, exposing him to further ridicule—and even violence.

Arthur, who devotes himself to caring for his fragile mother, seeks out every father figure he’s never had, from wealthy businessman Thomas Wayne to TV host Murray Franklin. Caught in a cyclical existence teetering on the precipice of reality and madness, one bad decision brings about a chain reaction of escalating, ultimately deadly, events.

Buy The Joker: A Celebration Of 75 Years here and catch up on the Clown Prince of Crime.

Joaquin Phoenix stars as the titular villain with Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2), Bill Camp (Red Sparrow, Molly’s Game), Frances Conroy (American Horror Story), Brett Cullen (Narcos), Glenn Fleshler (Barry), Douglas Hodge (Penny Dreadful), Marc Maron (GLOW), Josh Pais (Motherless Brooklyn), and Shea Whigham (First Man).

Todd Phillips (The Hangover trilogy) directs from a screenplay he co-wrote with writer Scott Silver (The Fighter), based on characters from DC. The film is being produced by Phillips and MCU mainstay Bradley Cooper under their Joint Effort banner, and Emma Tillinger Koskoff. It is executive produced by Richard Baratta, Joseph Garner, and Bruce Berman.

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