Jared Leto To Turn Joker Into A Hero?
Jared Leto might want to turn the Joker into a hero.
This article is more than 2 years old
The Clown Prince of Crime, a good guy? Well, for the moment that isn’t the case, but according to insider Daniel Richtman on his Patreon page, if Jared Leto has his way and comes back as Batman’s number one antagonist, he’d like to make his Joker more of an antihero.
Richtman doesn’t offer any more than the bare minimum on what Leto says about the Joker and his possible future with the Clown Prince. Though, in a way, it is strange that Leto is putting his name next to the Joker after the awful fan reception his version received in Suicide Squad. Then again, Leto’s name has been popping up all over the place, including right here at Giant Freakin Robot, and is linked to quite a few projects that would see his Joker return to action.
Of course, his version is set to appear one more time in the upcoming and highly anticipated Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The announcement was immediately hit with derision, all of which centered around Leto’s Suicide Squad cameo. Fans didn’t care at all for Leto’s tattooed and grill-wearing Joker and apparently don’t care much for his addition to Zack Snyder’s upcoming film. What is also a little perplexing is the fact that the Joker was nowhere to be seen in Whedon’s version of Justice League, nor had Snyder planned on him being in it. His involvement only came when Snyder decided to come back and finish what he started.
Not to give away too many plot points for Joker’s involvement in the new Justice League, but it is said that Jared Leto’s Joker appearance (POSSIBLE SPOILER) comes as a dream sequence that involves Batman in a very specific scene. Bypass the following if you want to remain surprised. Per Vanity Fair: Joker appears in the new film during a sequence set on a ruined Earth after the alien tyrant Darkseid invades and decimates the planet. It’s a dream sequence, a psychic vision, experienced by Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne that reveals what will happen if the superheroes fail to stop the onslaught. Joker is sort of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, supplying motivation through terror.
Snyder went on to say a little more about Leto as Joker in his movie, “The cool thing about the scene is that it’s Joker talking directly to Batman about Batman,” Snyder said. “It’s Joker analyzing Batman about who he is and what he is. That’s the thing I also felt like fans deserved from the DC Universe. That is to say, the Jared Leto Joker and the Ben Affleck Batman, they never really got together. It seemed uncool to me that we would make it all the way through this incarnation of Batman and Joker without seeing them come together.”
So, is this appearance where the seeds are planted for the Joker to eventually become an antihero? What about the new Jared Leto Joker, who has appeared in pictures already sans the tattooed look David Ayer gave him in Suicide Squad. “Who knows what’s happened,” Snyder said. “I don’t know if he’s wearing makeup, I don’t know what’s happening. It’s hard to say exactly.”
Ayer had his vision of the Joker, Snyder has his. Jared Leto is playing both and the hope is, at least from Jared Leto’s viewpoint, that Snyder’s version will be much better received. If so, then the rumored Joker projects that Leto has been circling may actually be true. It has been said that Leto may show up in a previously announced Harley Quinn movie and there is also word that the Joker may be getting his own solo movie, much like Joaquin Phoenix did while winning a Best Actor Academy Award in Todd Phillips’s Joker.
But first, fans need to see what Leto does in the Zack Snyder cut. Then, as they seem to be gaining more and more power, the fans can decide the direction of Jared Leto and his Joker. Leto may not have much to say about it after the fans chime in. You can check out Leto’s new Joker on HBO Max when Zack Snyder’s Justice League premieres on March 18, 2021.
