In the weeks following the announcement that Jared Leto would be returning as the Joker in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, barely a day passed without the Academy Award winner’s reinvented Clown Prince of Crime being linked with a return, something that carried on for weeks following the four-hour epic’s release on HBO Max.
At various points, Leto was “in talks” for all sorts of movies and TV shows, precisely none of which have come to fruition. In fact, it’s been radio silence on the Joker front for a long time. Undeterred, a new rumor from Giant Freakin Robot posits that the 49-year-old is actively pushing to don the paint once again, but only if he’s starring opposite Ben Affleck’s Batman.
There are two ways to look at this; based on their tense interaction during the Justice League epilogue, a showdown between the two arch-enemies clearly has the potential to be something spectacular, and the reactions from fans would make it abundantly clear that they’d love to see it happen.
On the other hand, if Warner Bros. wanted Leto to recur as the Joker then they wouldn’t have effectively written him out of the DCEU in Birds of Prey, or moved forward on Joaquin Phoenix’s Oscar-winner despite his protests. He was brought back for the Snyder Cut because the studio didn’t regard it as canon, and it was fan service on the largest scale.
That doesn’t mean it can’t be definitively ruled out by any stretch, but if GFR’s information is on the money then the Joker‘s comeback is entirely dependent on both Affleck and WB thinking it’s a worthwhile endeavor.
