While it might not have been a slam-dunk with the critics (currently sitting at 68 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a middling 59 at Metacritic), Todd Phillips’ Joker has proven to be a success in just about every other way. The director of the Hangover trilogy has emerged as a versatile filmmaker – to date, every single one of Phillips’ movies have been comedies or dramedies – and veteran actor Joaquin Phoenix has received heaps of praise for his role as the mentally ill Arthur Fleck.
Moviegoers all around seem to be enjoying the latest DC effort, too, as despite having officially premiered less than 10 days ago, it’s already proven itself to be a box office success, setting records for an October release while also racking up well over $500 million to boot. As you might imagine, Warner Bros. has been thrilled with how the pic’s performing, but unfortunately, it looks like one actor, in particular, isn’t too happy about the fact that he wasn’t included in the film’s production.
Jared Leto, who played the Clown Prince of Crime in 2016’s Suicide Squad, reportedly voiced his unhappiness before Joker was released. As reported by The New York Times, it seems Leto was “not keen” on having a “competing performance” – that is, he wasn’t happy there was another actor (in this case, Joaquin Phoenix) taking on the role, even though the two played different incarnations of the same character. It’s not entirely clear how Leto expressed his complaints, but it seems his words made their way to a few Warner Bros. execs and they had to deal with him being upset while getting the movie made.
Ever since the release of Joker, fans from all over have been retroactively changing their opinion on Jared’s performance but considering he won’t be appearing in the upcoming sequel/reboot of Suicide Squad, it looks like he’s been ousted from the role for the time being. That doesn’t mean he won’t ever return as the Clown Prince, but for now, it seems his stint in the DCEU has been put on hold.
Tell us, though, would you enjoy seeing Jared Leto take on the role of Joker once more, or do you think that particular casting should be laid to rest? Let us know down below!
