Joker: Every Easter Egg & Reference We Spotted

2. Batman Begins

It ultimately turns out that all the pre-release speculation was correct, as Joker ends with the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents at the hands of a random masked thug.

Though the film mercifully stops short of having Arthur himself be the one pulling the trigger, the scene invokes most of the typical visual signifiers of the Waynes' murder, namely it taking place in an alley next to a cinema, and Martha having her pearl necklace ripped away by the assailant.

This of course leaves Bruce orphaned and sets him on a path to presumably become Batman off-screen, keeping the film's stature as a "one-off" firmly in tact while still nodding towards The Joker and Batman's inevitable fate.

But quite what this version of Batman would even be with such a wretched father figure is anyone's guess.