Justice League director Zack Snyder has shared a new photo of Jared Leto as Joker from the Knightmare portion of his cut of the film.
Snyder posted the below image of Leto's Joker to Vero, a social media platform to which the director has posted many images from his time in the DC Extended Universe. He did not provide a caption or any additional information about the photo.
Leto made his debut as the Joker in 2016's Suicide Squad. His particular version of the character was much maligned, and the movie was critiqued for Joker's relatively small role in the movie despite a prominent role in marketing materials. Still, Suicide Squad writer and director David Ayer has teased Leto's role in the film as having been much bigger in earlier cuts.
Despite tentative plans for a project based around Leto's Joker, the actor did not return to the DCEU until 2021's Zack Snyder's Justice League. That cut of the film featured an extended sequence in which Bruce Wayne/Batman gathered together a team to stop Darkseid and a corrupted Clark Kent/Superman (Henry Cavill) in a dark future. Among those with whom Batman found himself aligned was Joker. There's no indication at this time that Leto will reprise his role as Joker at any point in the future.
Originally released in 2017, Justice League proved a massive misstep for Warner Bros. The movie, which saw the titular team uniting to fight Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds), only made around $657 million worldwide against a budget of around $300 million, far below the studio's expectations and its projected break-even point. Justice League's failure caused the studio to change its strategy for creating a shared superhero universe.
Behind-the-scenes, Justice League had a troubled production. Snyder left the movie following the death of his daughter, with Warner Bros. hiring Avengers director Joss Whedon to helm extensive re-shoots. This prompted fan outcry and a social media campaign to restore Snyder's original vision of Justice League. In 2020, Warner Bros. announced Zack Snyder's Justice League for HBO Max, the company's streaming service. Snyder oversaw additional photography on Justice League to complete his vision, and his cut received a warmer reception than the theatrical version. At this time, there's no indication Snyder will return to the DCEU in any larger capacity.
Zack Snyder's Justice League is available to stream now on HBO Max.
Source: Vero