Jared Leto's Joker Redesign Revealed In Snyder's 'Justice League' Images
In reporting from Screen Rant, an image of actor Jared Leto, who portrayed the Joker in 2016's Suicide Squad, has been revealed with a surprising new look to be featured in the upcoming "Snyder Cut" of Justice League, which is coming to HBO Max in March 2021.
As part of DC's effort to create its own cinematic movie universe to compete with Marvel's own film continuity, 2017's Justice League was a direct follow-up to 2016's Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice, featuring Ben Affleck as the new Batman and Henry Cavill continuing his portrayal of the Superman from 2013's Man of Steel. Justice League featured Affleck's Batman recruiting Gal Godot's Wonder Woman, first introduced in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, as well as a diverse group of other well-known DC superheroes such as Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg, in order to help save the planet from other evil forces threatening it.
Leto was not involved in the original cut of Justice League. However, with an increased budget estimated in the millions being offered to Snyder for reshoots to fulfill his original vision of the movie as part of a longer, full-length future (originally considered for a miniseries), Snyder reached out to Leto to incorporate him into his new cut of the film, and Leto ultimately agreed to be part of the project. Although a teaser image of this new look for the Joker was previously released, the image was intentionally blurry, with a focus on another item in the picture. As such, Leto's full appearance as the Joker in the new cut has, until now, remained shrouded in mystery.
Vanity Fair has now released an image of Leto as the Joker, with him appearing in his familiar white makeup as in his previous iteration as the Joker. However, he is now sporting smudged makeup around his mouth and longer hair compared to his previous appearance. He is also shown to be in a cell, with a smock on, a drastic change from his previous more fashionable appearances. Due to his changed appearance, it is being speculated that, although this is supposed to be the same Joker who was featured in Suicide Squad, we will be seeing him during a different time period, or perhaps even in the so-called "Knightmare Timeline," a plot thread first introduced as a dystopian alternate timeline glimpsed in 2016's Batman v Superman, where villain Darkseid succeeded in his attempts to take over the Earth and portended significantly darker futures for Superman, who became a tyrant after Lois Lane's death, and Batman, continuing a longer and harder struggle against the darkness. In this timeline, the Joker may have survived Darkseid's subjugation of the Earth and may feature somehow in that storyline.
Although Snyder was the original director of 2017's Justice League film, well-known science fiction/supernatural director Joss Whedon was later brought in to finish the movie. Whedon significantly changed key elements of the film, including the emphasis on the aforementioned alternative future thread, which we may well be seeing more of as a direct result of the release the longer Snyder cut. Also, some have speculated that this may enable Leto's future appearance in a Justice League sequel, should one eventually come to fruition.
Alternate cuts of movies within the DC universe are not new. In 2006, a cut of the 1980 Christopher Reeve-era Superman II, which was originally directed by Richard Donner but finished by Richard Lester, was released to home video. The Donner Cut gave fans an opportunity to glimpse a slightly different version of that classic Superman film. With the upcoming release of Zack Snyder's cut of Justice League, fans will have the opportunity to see another vision of that film, whose original theatrical release received a mixed reception among DC fans, which led to the push to release this cut of the film. Will this new cut receive a warmer reception among DC fans? Only time we tell, but in a game of cards, the Joker is always wild.
Source(s): Screen Rant [1][2]
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