Jared Leto To Play Joker In 'The Snyder Cut' And... Oh Boy

Warner Bros.

Academy Award winner Jared Leto is set to reprise his role as Gotham City’s Crown Prince of Crime and appear as the Joker in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, otherwise known as “The Snyder Cut”, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Jared Leto, who played classic DC villain The Joker in 2016’s Suicide Squad, has joined the reshoots for the “Snyder Cut,” the filmmaker’s definitive version of the 2017 superhero movie he was forced to exit and he never saw through completion, multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

Shooting is currently underway with Ben Affleck, Ray Fisher, and Amber Heard among those involved on top of Leto. It is unclear which other actors are involved.

It also ties the new cut to Suicide Squad, the all-star DC-based movie that saw Margot Robbie break out as fan-favorite character Harley Quinn and which saw Leto portray Joker as a love-obsessed and glittery crime lord. [via THR]

Leto’s inclusion in The Snyder Cut is a major development for numerous reasons, the most notable of which being that his version of Joker did not appear in the theatrical cut of Justice League. In fact, outside of an easter egg in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (in the form of Robin’s spray-painted suit) and a quick flashback encounter in Suicide Squad, Ben Affleck’s Batman and Leto’s Joker have yet to interact. The only time Leto’s Joker has featured in the DCEU is in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, which — although also the victim of heavy studio meddling — is widely considered to be one of, if not the worst film in the franchise thus far.

It also raises the question of how exactly how much new content is being added to Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which the director previously said would include no shots from Joss Whedon’s theatrical cut.

My assumption would be that whatever involvement Leto does have, it would occur in the past, possibly in the form of a flashback that would further explain battered Robin gear that hangs in Bruce’s Batcave in BvS, as someone tying him into a narrative that’s set to feature galactic foes such as Steppenwolf and Darkseid seems like too far of a stretch. Then again, not only is this a Zack Snyder production — who’s the king of excess — but it’s a four-part mini-series, giving him plenty of runway to do, really, whatever the hell he wants. Given that the budget of the project has reportedly ballooned to around $70 million, it certainly sounds as though that’s going to be the case.

Even as a long-running critic of Leto’s performance — everything from the tattooed, gangster aesthetic to his pestering mannerisms bothered me — while this isn’t necessarily the news I wanted to hear regarding The Snyder Cut, I am somewhat paradoxically looking forward to seeing what Leto brings to the character without any interference. After all, Leto is an Academy Award winner and it simply wouldn’t be fair to make a final judgment on his portrayal without seeing the performance in the way it was intended to be seen.