Justice League: Jared Leto’s Joker gets a crown of thorns in new image

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Zack Snyder's 4 hour director's cut of the superhero team-up movie Justice League, something that will be almost completely different from the Joss Whedon rewritten and reshot version that was released to theatres in 2017 (you can watch Whedon's film HERE), will be available to watch on the HBO Max streaming service as of March 18th. Ahead of that release date, a Vanity Fair article appears to have finally revealed the complete, unfiltered truth about the making of the "Snyder Cut" – and it has also revealed a new look at Snyder's take on the Jared Leto Joker we previously saw in Suicide Squad. That image can be seen below.

The article digs into the fact that Warner Bros. gave Snyder creative control on Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman, only to be disappointed that he always made choices that weren't what they wanted. They lost so much faith in his vision by the time Justice League started shooting, they assigned executives to "babysit" him every day on set, and hired Whedon to do rewrites. They refused to let him include a romance between Bruce Wayne and Lois Lane, 

who was mourning Superman’s death in the previous film. “The intention was that Bruce fell in love with Lois and then realized that the only way to save the world was to bring Superman back to life,” says Snyder. “So he had this insane conflict, because Lois, of course, was still in love with Superman. We had this beautiful speech where [Bruce] said to Alfred: ‘I never had a life outside the cave. I never imagined a world for me beyond this. But this woman makes me think that if I can get this group of gods together, then my job is done. I can quit. I can stop.’ And of course that doesn’t work out for him.”

They demanded that Justice League only be two hours long, and when they saw the rough cut of the film they informed Snyder that Whedon would be directing reshoots. That's when Snyder, who had just suffered a devastating family tragedy and no longer had the strength to fight for the movie, stepped away. Whedon went on to reshoot at least 75% of the movie… and delivered a film that Warner Bros. still wasn't happy with. An anonymous executive told Vanity Fair, 

When we got to see what Joss actually did, it was stupefying. The robber on the rooftop — so goofy and awful. The Russian family — so useless and pointless. Everyone knew it. It was so awkward because nobody wanted to admit what a piece of shit it was."

The article also reveals that Warner Bros. wanted to just drop the rough cut Snyder had on his computer online as the "Snyder Cut", but he talked them into giving him $70 million to finish the film the way he wanted to. Those finishing touches included some additional photography, with Jared Leto's Joker being added into the mix for 

a sequence set on a ruined Earth after the alien tyrant Darkseid invades and decimates the planet. 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.

And judging by this new image, it's quite a trippy sequence, since it apparently even features the sight of Joker wearing a crown of thorns.

Scripted by Chris Terrio, Justice League has the following synopsis: 

Following the death of Superman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Batman and Wonder Woman recruit the Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg to form the Justice League and protect the world from Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons, who seek the three Mother Boxes.

The film stars Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Ciaran Hinds, Amy Adams, Jeremy Irons, Diane Lane, Connie Nielsen, J.K. Simmons, Joe Morton, Jesse Eisenberg, Joe Manganiello, Amber Heard, Harry Lennix, Kiersey Clemons, Willem Dafoe, Zheng Kai, Karen Bryson, Peter Guinness, Ray Porter, Marc McClure, and Leto.