Short answer: the newest Joker movie is Joker: Folie à Deux (2024), and its plot is the one to follow if you want the current story. The 2019 film still matters because the sequel starts where it stopped, and the trial in part two is built from the crimes in part one. I compared both films on release order, story continuity, cast, and how each one ends.

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Joker (2019): The Story Everything Builds On

Set in Gotham City in 1981, the first film follows Arthur Fleck, a party clown and aspiring stand-up comic who lives with his mother, Penny, and depends on a city program for therapy and medication.

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  1. Arthur is beaten by a group of teenagers and later loses access to his medication and counseling.
  2. Three Wayne Enterprises employees mock him on a subway train, and he shoots all three.
  3. Protests spread across Gotham, with demonstrators wearing clown masks.
  4. Arthur learns that his romance with his neighbor Sophie existed only in his head, and that Penny lied about his parentage and abused him as a child.
  5. He is invited onto Murray Franklin's talk show and shoots the host during a live broadcast.
  6. The film closes with Arthur in Arkham State Hospital, laughing alone in a corridor.

Pros

  • Works as a complete story with no homework required.
  • Sets up the riots, the Wayne family thread, and the Murray Franklin killing that the sequel's trial keeps returning to.

Cons

  • It ignores the comic-book origin, so viewers who expect the traditional backstory will not find it here.
  • The delusion reveal forces a second look at scenes that seemed simple the first time.

Watch it if: you want the newest film's plot to make sense from the first scene.

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Joker: Folie à Deux (2024): The Current Plot

The sequel picks up two years later. Arthur is an inmate at Arkham State Hospital while he waits to stand trial for the murders committed in the first film. He meets Harleen "Lee" Quinzel in a music therapy session, and their bond plays out through fantasy musical numbers staged inside Arthur's head. Joaquin Phoenix returns as Arthur, Lady Gaga plays Lee, and Todd Phillips returns as director.

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The center of the film is the trial. Arthur's lawyer argues that a separate Joker personality carried out the killings, and the prosecution calls witnesses from the first film, including Sophie and Gary Puddles. Lee urges Arthur to keep the Joker identity alive. When he stands up in court and says he is only Arthur, she leaves him.

The ending is the part people search for. Arthur is convicted and sent back to Arkham, where a young inmate approaches him in a corridor, tells him a joke, and stabs him. Arthur dies laughing. The attacker then carves a smile into his own face, which implies the Joker persona survived the man who carried it.

Pros

  • Continues the same character instead of rebooting, so the trial pays off the first film's crimes.
  • Cast continuity, with Phoenix and Zazie Beetz returning and Gaga joining as Lee.
  • Gives a clear ending rather than an open franchise hook.

Cons

  • The musical sequences interrupt the plot's momentum and are imagined rather than literal.
  • Several trial scenes mean little without the first film.
  • The final scene closes the Arthur Fleck story, which some viewers find abrupt.

Watch it if: you want the newest Joker plot and you have already seen the 2019 film or read a recap.

Is a Third Joker Movie Coming?

Warner Bros. and DC Studios have not announced a third film in this series. The Joker films sit outside the main DC Studios continuity, so a Joker appearing in the shared universe is a separate project from the Phoenix and Phillips version. Reports of pitches for a follow-up have not turned into an announced production, and until a studio confirms one, treat any "Joker 3" plot summary as speculation.

How to Pick Which Joker Plot to Follow

  • New to the character: start with Joker (2019), then watch Joker: Folie à Deux.
  • Only want the newest plot: Folie à Deux works, but the trial references land better after a recap of the first film.
  • Waiting for a sequel: no third film is confirmed, so the Arthur Fleck story currently ends with Folie à Deux.
  • Looking for the comic origin: neither film uses it. The comics have kept the Joker's background ambiguous on purpose.

A spoiler note: both plot summaries above give away the endings, so read them only if you want the story spoiled.