The fate of Zazie Beetz's Sophie was one of Joker's biggest mysteries, as the film left her status up in the air following her final, shocking encounter with the titular character. Now, director Todd Phillips admits he cut a scene confirming what happened to Arthur Fleck's pretend girlfriend.
Phillips told IndieWire that a cut scene saw Sophie pop up during the final act when Fleck appeared on The Murray Franklin Show. As Arthur brutally gunned down Robert De Niro's talk show host, Sophie was supposed to watch the madness unfold from the safety of her own home.
Speaking about Sophie's survival, Phillips added, "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?’" Discussing Fleck's complicated code of ethics, Phillips concluded: "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.”
Explaining why he nixed Sophie's scene, Phillips revealed that it didn't fit with the rest of the movie. With Joker being told from the point of view of Arthur, it didn't make sense to cut to Sophie's experience. Having Fleck kill Sophie would've definitely hyped the Clown Prince of Crime's violent nature comic book fans have come to know over the years, however, it would've been a move away from the controversially sympathetic Joker Phillips introduced.
Directed by Todd Phillips, Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Bill Camp, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Glenn Fleshler, Douglas Hodge, Marc Maron, Josh Pais and Shea Whigham. Joker is now in theaters