Justice League the infamous version of the 2017 film by director Zack Snyder will hit HBO Max in March – and this time, Jared Leto’s notorious Joker (as seen in Suicide squad) will make an appearance.
Snyder teased Leto in a tweet earlier this month. On Tuesday, Vanity Fair reported more details about how Prince Clown of Crime will fit into the Justice League myths. The iconic character was originally not part of Justice League, but Snyder told Vanity Fair: “It was always my intention to bring the Joker into this world”.
Snyder wanted to involve the Joker in a later project, he said, but that never came. But lasting four hours Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Snyder has a chance to put his interpretation on the villain.
[Ed. Note: This post contains slight spoilers for the Snyder Cut of Justice League.]
Unlike Leto’s character in Suicide squad – shirtless, with provocative tattoos and green hair combed back – this Joker wears a hospital gown and surgical mask, apparently a fugitive from an asylum. He appears in a dream sequence for Ben Affleck’s Batman, revealing the destroyed and apocalyptic Earth that will happen if the heroes fail.
“The cool thing about the scene is that the Joker is talking directly to Batman about Batman,” Snyder told Vanity Fair. “It’s the Joker analyzing Batman about who he is and what he is. That’s what I also felt the fans deserved from DC Universe. That is, Jared Leto Joker and Ben Affleck Batman, they never really met. It didn’t seem cool to me that we had made it all the way through this incarnation of Batman and Joker without seeing them coming together. “
Snyder had suggested connecting Batman and Joker in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but I never got a chance to explore it. He told Vanity Fair that he imagined telling the story of how the Joker murdered Robin, which cemented Batman’s deep vengeance for the villain. This dark story has never been a cinematic success, but the dream sequence will give fans what they want from a Batman-Joker connection in the DC Extended Universe’s Snyder corner.
The Snyder Cut by Justice League will arrive at HBO Max on March 18.