First Look At Jared Leto’s Joker In ‘Justice League’
We finally have our first look at Jared Leto’s Joker in Zack Snyder’s Justice League in what will likely be the actor’s final appearance in the role, and he looks a bit different since his debut in 2016’s Suicide Squad.
Thanks to two exclusive black and white photos from Vanity Fair, we can see Leto’s Joker sitting in prison. He looks grim in these photos, wearing a dirty hospital gown, and with longer hair and his tattoos all gone.
The Joker cameo is part of the additional photography requested by Zack Snyder when he was given the green light to finish his creative vision for the 2017 movie.
Spoiler warning – The Joker cameo is set during an apocalyptic sequence, presumably the same time period as the Knightmare sequence from Batman v Superman, after Darkseid has already conquered planet Earth. As before, it’s in a dream sequence experienced by Ben Affleck’s Batman that reveals what will happen if the heroes fail to stop Darkseid and Steppenwolf.
Snyder explained why it was so important for him to get Jared Leto’s Joker in his Justice League film:
The cool thing about the scene is that it’s Joker talking directly to Batman about Batman. 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. The scene explains why Bruce had the Joker card taped to his gun that you see in Batman v Superman.
Snyder also ruminated on the death of Robin, which he had teased in Batman v Superman too:
I’d always wanted to explore the death of Robin. And if there ever was going to be a next movie, which, of course, there probably won’t be, I wanted to do a thing where in flashbacks we learn how Robin died, how Joker killed him and burned down Wayne Manor, and that whole thing that happened between he and Bruce. [I wanted to show] how they became like this… how he hurt him in a way that no one has, really. Other than losing his parents, it was probably the most significant personal injury to his life.
Snyder also speculated on what might have happened between Batman and Joker in the years leading up to this apocalypse, and why Joker’s tattoos have been removed (the latter is seemingly because he prefers Joker without the tattoos).
I would say that there’s been some water under the bridge. Who knows what’s happened… I don’t know if he’s wearing makeup, I don’t know what’s happening. It’s hard to say exactly.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League will debut on HBO Max on March 18, curiously a day before Marvel’s The Falcon and The Winter Soldier series does the same on Disney Plus. It is unclear if the film will be rolled out in all countries outside of North America that don’t have access to HBO Max at the same time through regular HBO, although some of them have confirmed that is the case.
Josh is a huge a fan of Star Wars, superheroes and video games. He spends most of his time wondering who would win in a fight between Boba Fett and Star Lord.
