With the release of Zack Snyder's Justice League fast approaching, Warner Bros. and the director himself are teasing plenty of new footage. While a new trailer will be released on Valentine's Day, Vanity Fair has just unveiled a first look at the return of Jared Leto as the Joker. Leto was part of the cast that returned to film additional scenes for Snyder's cut of Justice League, which prompted fans to theorize how the character would factor into the movie.
Vanity Fair's photos, however, feature an unexpected look for the Joker. He's got long hair that doesn't appear as green as it did in Suicide Squad and no longer has the facial tattoos he previously sported. With that said, let's break down why the Joker looks so different in Zack Snyder's Justice League.
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Introduced in 2016's Suicide Squad, this new take on the Clown Prince of Crime reimagined the character as more of a gangster. For that reason, the Joker had a new look that was spearheaded by multiple facial tattoos. The character's appearance was a source of plenty of controversy among fans, given that it was such a departure from the Joker's usual comic book appearance.
Now, the character is set to return to the DC Extended Universe in Zack Snyder's Justice League, but as revealed in the Vanity Fair photos, he no longer has his tattoos. The reason for that is likely found in the context of the Joker's return in the film. On top of unveiling the new photos, Vanity Fair has confirmed that Leto's Joker will appear in the film as part of a return to the "Knightmare" reality first seen in 2016's Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice."Joker appears in the new film during a sequence set on a ruined Earth after the alien tyrant Darkseid invades and decimates the planet," the outlet reveals. "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."
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In Batman v. Superman, Bruce Wayne had a dream that turned out to be a vision of a dystopian reality where Darkseid had taken over the world and bent Superman to his will. Batman, now wearing a Mad Max-style costume, was fighting this new world order along with a crew of resistance soldiers. The full context of this "Knightmare" reality had yet to be revealed, but it looks like answers will be coming in the Snyder Cut.
The HBO Max-bound film will once again feature Batman in this dark reality, and he will come across his worst enemy, the Joker. Since this is essentially a vision of a dark future, there are two possible answers as to why the Joker doesn't have any facial tattoos. The first is that, since this is technically a vision, Batman is simply seeing the Clown Prince of Crime as he imagines him. After all, in his original vision, Bruce saw Superman as he believed him to be: a murderous alien invader. In this dream, the Dark Knight could see his archenemy not as a man or a gangster, but as a real monster, a frightening specter of death.
However, if the "Knightmare" reality is truly a potential future timeline, it may not be born of Bruce Wayne's imagination. If this is a dystopian timeline rule by Darkseid, then it's possible this version of Joker has undergone some drastic changes since his appearance in Suicide Squad. Perhaps he bathed in bleaching chemicals again or went through some other kind of rebirth process, just like the character has gone through in the comics.
Zack Snyder's Justice League stars Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Ciarán Hinds as Steppenwolf, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor and J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon. The film arrives on HBO Max March 18.