2016's Suicide Squad was far from a great movie – far from a good movie, in fact. However, almost half-a-decade after its release, fans are still upset at one of its greatest sins: the Jared Leto Joker.
Revealed back in 2015, Suicide Squad’s Jared Leto Joker was immediately ridiculed. In the years since, he's still universally hated in the role, so much so that he's not returning for the upcoming sequel.
James Gunn doesn't get Jared Leto Joker
In an interview with The New York Times, The Suicide Squad director James Gunn revealed his thoughts on the DCEU's Joker. When asked if he thought about bringing back Jared Leto's version of the Clown Prince of Crime, he explained:
“I just don’t know why Joker would be in the Suicide Squad," Gunn admitted. "He wouldn’t be helpful in that type of war situation. I wanted to create what I thought of as the Suicide Squad. For me to react to David’s movie would make it the shadow of David’s movie. I wanted it to be its own thing completely."
Gunn revealed that creative freedom was essential to him taking on The Suicide Squad in the first place. After watching the original movie, the director asked if he had to bring anything back. Thankfully, for Gunn and the fans, there was no mandate to bring back anyone, not even the Jared Leto Joker.
He said:
“When Warner Bros. said they wanted me to do this, I watched the first movie for the first time, and I called them back and said, what do I have to keep from this movie? And they said, nothing. They said, listen, we would love it if Margot’s in the movie but she doesn’t have to be. You could come up with all new characters or you could keep all the same characters."
The Suicide Squad releases on July 30th, 2021.
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