James Gunn Explains Why The Suicide Squad Doesn’t Need Joker

After David Ayer helmed the first Suicide Squad movie, resulting in deeply divisive reviews, James Gunn was brought on to direct the sequel. So far, he’s been pretty tightlipped on the details of his first project in the DCEU, but we do know that the new film is going to have a much bigger cast of villains than the original. For a while now, though, fans have been wondering if they can expect to see the Joker return in some capacity.

During a Q&A session on Instagram Stories, Gunn was asked straight-up if Jared Leto will be reprising his controversial take on the Clown Prince of Crime and had this to say:

“No one but me and a few others know all the characters in the movie, but if the Joker isn’t in the film, I don’t think it would be strange as he isn’t a part of the Suicide Squad in the comics,”

So, there you have it. Joker probably won’t be in the movie because he isn’t part of the group in the comics. And while Gunn doesn’t rule it out completely, chances are slim that we’ll get to see Leto involved in the pic.

After all, any tangential dealing he had with the Squad was only recently when his girlfriend Harley Quinn became a part of the team, and the only reason Joker was in the original movie in the first place was to allow his popularity with non-comic book audiences to give a boost to the rest of the lesser-known villains.

This plan backfired though, with Leto’s portrayal of the Joker and the fact that his brief role did little to affect the overall plot of the film coming under heavy criticism. So, Mr. J being a part of the first Suicide Squad was not an experiment that yielded good results and Gunn is unlikely to want to repeat that mistake.

Finally, with Joaquin Phoenix’s take on the Clown Prince of Crime debuting so recently, to positive critical acclaim and huge box office receipts, no less, it’s unlikely that Warner Bros. will want to bring another version of the Joker to theaters so soon after, especially one that’s proven to have few fans. As such, it looks like the Suicide Squad sequel will have to make its own way without relying on any hype relating to an appearance from the iconic Batman villain.