Joker fans who despised Jared Leto’s appearance in Suicide Squad can sigh a breath of relief, as Vanity Fair shared two exclusive black and white photos today that reveal a different look for the iconic villain in Zack Snyder’s definitive version of Justice League. Instead of a slicked-back emerald undercut and “damaged” forehead tattoo, Leto will return in the revised cut of the 2018 superhero assemblage with a cleaner, more sinister visage that swings a bit closer to the character’s more popular live-action interpretations. Vanity Fair also shared some surprisingly spoiler-heavy comments that reveal what kind of role Joker will play in the movie and which scenes he’ll appear in.
(Spoilers) “Joker appears in the new film during a sequence set on a ruined Earth after the alien tyrant Darkseid invades and decimates the planet,” Vanity Fair explained. “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.”
“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.”
Snyder goes on to confirm that the scene will explain why Batman had a Joker card taped to his gun in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’s Knightmare sequence, which featured the Dark Knight on a war-torn, post-apocalyptic Earth after it was invaded by Darkseid and his army of Parademons. The director noted that if he had the chance to do another movie, it’d include flashbacks that would show how Robin died at the hands of Joker and how he burned down Wayne Manor.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League will be available to stream exclusively on HBO Max on Thursday, March 18. There had been plans to split the movie into a handful of episodes due to its length, but Snyder and Warner Bros. ultimately decided to release it as a single, full-length film that will reportedly run for four hours.
