One storyline from Todd Phillips‘ ‘Joker’ that was left ambiguous was the fate of Zazie Beetz‘s character, Sophie. Through most of the movie, it appears that Joaquin Phoenix‘s Arthur Fleck is developing a romantic relationship with her, but ultimately, the audience realizes that Arthur has imagined the whole thing when Sophie discovers Arthur in her apartment and doesn’t know who he is.
The question then became, what happened next? Did Arthur kill her? Phillips says no, and that a deleted scene made that clear. In an interview with Indie Wire, he stated:
“He doesn’t kill her, definitively. 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.”
According to Phillips, a deleted shot showed Sophie watching Fleck’s appearance on the Murray Franklin talk show, on TV, but that he had to cut it because it didn’t fit with his vision of presenting the entire movie from Fleck’s perspective.
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Last month, cinematographer Lawrence Sher also dismissed the idea that Arthur killed Sophie, and echoed Phillips’ explanation, saying:
“Todd makes it clear she wasn’t killed. Arthur is killing people who’ve wronged him in a certain way, and Sophie never wronged him.”
So if you were concerned about what happened to Sophie, you can rest assured, knowing that she escaped the wrath of Arthur Fleck.
How did you interpret this development? Did you think she had been killed?
