Reddit spotted Batman in the very first scene of Joker. Did you catch it?

Reddit user Valconix1 spotted a subtle Batman reference in the opening scene of Todd Phillips’ Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix.

If a subtle detail spotted by a Reddit user in the opening scene Todd Phillips’ Joker is intentional, it might be one of the most clever movie Easter eggs in recent times. The user posted an image of Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) sitting at his vanity table, with a familiar image in the background.

Joaquin Phoenix won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Joker.

The shape of the cowl of Joker’s arch-nemesis Batman seems to form in the reflection in Arthur’s mirror, with a light and a sign forming the eyes, and a hanging sign forming the ears. Interestingly, Bruce Wayne makes an appearance later in Joker, as a young boy, when Arthur goes to meet Thomas Wayne.

A Reddit user spotted the image of Batman behind Arthur Fleck in the opening scene of Joker.

Even as Redditors are losing their minds over this detail, it appears to be a complete coincidence. In an interview with Collider last year, Philips had said, “I don’t do Easter eggs. Any Easter eggs anybody finds is a mistake. I don’t understand.” He claimed that any subtle references were the work of the ‘art department sneaking something in that would make me crazy if I knew about it’.

“It couldn’t just be this wild and crazy movie about the ‘Clown Prince of Crime.’ It would have to have some thematic resonance in a similar way that this does. Because I think that’s ultimately why the movie connected, it’s what’s going on underneath. So many movies are about the spark, and this is about the powder. If you could capture that again in a real way, that would be interesting,” he had said.

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