Just when you thought 2020 couldn’t get any more bonkers, Jared Leto’s Joker is making a very unexpected comeback.
The Hollywood Reporter says that Jared Leto will appear as the Clown Prince of Gotham in the Snyder Cut of Justice League. He’s joining other actors like Ben Affleck, Ray Fisher, and Amber Heard who are reprising their DC roles for new footage in the extended cut, scheduled to hit HBO Max in 2021.
How, exactly, Leto’s character fits in remains a mystery. His presence was briefly felt in Batman v Superman with a cryptic note on the armour of Robin, and of course he played a larger role in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, which also had a Ben Affleck Batman cameo. He was left out of Birds of Prey, though, and Joker had no defined role in Justice League, so his inclusion is just another clue at how radically different the Snyder Cut will be.
Of course, we can’t talk about Jared Leto’s portrayal of the Joker without mentioning a few other things. First, his crazy on-set antics, which included sending used condoms to his cast members. Also, that Warner Bros. had planned on doing a movie with Leto’s take on the character, but then pushed him to the side so the studio could do the unrelated DC spin-off Joker, featuring an Oscar-winning turn by Joaquin Phoenix. Leto’s return just brings all of these things swirling back to light in ways that, frankly, we’d rather they not. But hey — if the Joker is good for anything, it’s starting chaos, and this news will surely do that.
The Snyder Cut of Justice League is schedule to come to HBO Max in the U.S. (and Foxtel/Binge in Australia) sometime in 2021.