Justice League Snyder Cut: Jared Leto’s Joker revealed in new images

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

The DC Comics adaptation Justice League (watch it HERE) was credited to director Zack Snyder, but the film was substantially altered and reshot by Joss Whedon after Snyder had to leave the project due to a family tragedy during post-production. Three years after the film's theatrical release, Snyder was given the chance to assemble a "Snyder Cut" of Justice League – and he didn't just use the footage he had to work with in 2017. He also shot some new footage, with one additional scene giving Jared Leto the chance to reprise the role of The Joker, a character he previously played in Suicide Squad (watch that HERE).

Last week, the appearance of Leto's Joker was teased with an image where his face was out of focus. Now a couple images have arrived online to give us a full look at the character. Most of his flesh is obscured and he's not smiling, so we can't be sure how many of his Suicide Squad tattoos remain or if he still has a metal grill, but a couple of his facial tattoos – the J by his left eye, the word "Damaged" on his forehead – are absent.

Snyder told Vanity Fair that he didn't originally intend to have the character in Justice League, but he did plan to have Leto's Joker and Ben Affleck's Batman cross paths on screen at some point down the line, if he had been able to see through his entire plan for the DC franchise. Realizing that the "Snyder Cut" may be his last chance to work in this world, he decided to add in a Joker scene.

According to Vanity Fair, 

Joker appears in the new film during 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.

Snyder said, 

The cool thing about the scene is that it’s Joker talking directly to Batman about Batman. 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. The scene explains why Bruce had the Joker card taped to his gun that you see in Batman v Superman."

Snyder also discussed the story he would like to explore if he ever does have the chance to work with Batman and The Joker again, tying into the sight of Robin's empty costume in Batman v. Superman, where it had 'Ha Ha, Joke's On You, Batman' spraypainted on it.

I’d always wanted to explore the death of Robin. And if there ever was going to be a next movie, which, of course, there probably won’t be, I wanted to do a thing where in flashbacks we learn how Robin died, how Joker killed him and burned down Wayne Manor, and that whole thing that happened between he and Bruce. How they became like this … how he hurt him in a way that no one has, really. Other than losing his parents, it was probably the most significant personal injury to his life."

We may never get to see the story of the impact Leto's Joker killing Robin had on Affleck's Batman, but we will have our chance to watch the Snyder Cut of Justice League when it reaches the HBO Max streaming service on March 18th.