Why Jared Leto’s Joker Would Never Have Worked On Suicide Squad

James Gunn confirms that Jared Leto’s Joker was never considered for The Suicide Squad. Here’s why the DCEU Clown Prince wouldn’t have worked.

Jared Leto’s Joker was never in dispute to return Suicide squad – Here’s why that’s not a bad thing. Five years after Task Force X put their lives on the line against Enchantress, the gang – some of them, at least – are back for Suicide squad. With James Gunn occupying the director’s chair this time, Suicide squad It’s a very different beast compared to the 2016 original, and it won’t even address whether the two movies exist within a shared DC movie universe. Despite this, some family offenders are gluttons for punishment, such as Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney’s Captain Boomerang, Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag, and Viola Davis’s Amanda Waller.

The Joker, however, has been removed from the pack. With Heath Ledger’s iconic portrayal still relatively fresh in mind, the DCEU cast Jared Leto as the next Clown Prince of Crime in cinema. Initially, casting the eccentric frontman of the Oscar-winning 30 Seconds To Mars seemed like an inspired casting. Then they got a tattoo on his head, put a grid on his teeth and put gold on his wrists. The character was a huge disappointment in a poor quality movie. Suicide squad director, David Ayer, blames studio interference for decimating Leto’s scenes, and while Zack Snyder’s Justice League offered the DCEU’s Joker some measure of redemption, there is no sign of a long-term future for Leto’s Joker.

Related: Is The Suicide Squad a Sequel, Remake, Reboot, or Standalone Story?

Some might have hoped the pale joker from the DCEU would return in Suicide squadBut Gunn has shut down this notion, confirming that he didn’t even consider involving Leto because a Joker appearance wouldn’t make sense. And it’s easy to see where the director is coming from. For starters, Joker felt horribly trapped in 2016. Suicide squad, adding little to the plot, distracting the main group and leaving viewers bitterly disappointed, either because they liked its mumble-rap aesthetic and wanted something more substantial, or because they hated it and wished Leto’s Joker had stayed. at home cataloging his collection of weapons.

After a debut in failure, many may have been tempted to try again with the sequel, but Joker’s presence in Suicide squad would even less sense that in 2016. For starters, the connection to Harley Quinn has been officially severed. The Joker’s route to Suicide squad It was an ongoing dysfunctional romance with Mrs. Quinzel, but thanks to Birds of prey, Harley has emancipated herself (it’s even in the title!) From her abusive ex. The only tenuous link Joker had with Task Force X is no more, and any kind of big comeback in Suicide squad it would only harm Harley Quinn’s development as an independent character.

Suicide squad It could have circumvented this problem by including Joker in the Squad itself, rather than loading it with another peripheral part as the first movie infamously did. Again, this makes very little sense. By its very nature, Task Force X is made up of nearly worthless supervillains (Harley Quinn notwithstanding) at his last chance. They are irretrievably rejected and expendable who take up valuable prison space, and James Gunn leans for this quality far more than David Ayer, pitching a variety of D-list DC names: Weasel, Polka-Dot Man, etc. Just try and imagine Jared Leto’s Joker sat in a military transport between a soda-swallowing Nathan Fillion and a legged shark … Not only is Joker incredibly famous in DC’s fictional universe, he’s also one of the most feared and effective criminals currently in business. Assuming the authorities caught him, even Waller wouldn’t risk putting the Clown Prince on his team, as his status and reputation go against everything she designed for the Suicide Squad.

Skipping Jared Leto’s Joker from Suicide squad it is a win-win situation for everyone. The movie can focus on its main team without being forced to accommodate a madman in a clown costume, and Leto can leave his tenure in DC on a positive note after his brief cameo in Snyder Cut.

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