The upcoming Snyder Cut of Justice League remains an object of fascination. For years it was debated whether it even existed (it largely didn’t, since it’s taken $70 million-plus to finish it all off, with additional shooting and tons of additional post-production work involved), and now it’s slowly approaching with a four-hour runtime and a near-mythic status as some kind of pop cultural holy grail. Among everything else – all that extra Cyborg footage, hours of new material, and a complete excision of any Joss Whedon-shot bits – the film will include another appearance from Jared Leto’s Joker, first introduced in Suicide Squad, and Zack Snyder has shared a pic to prove it.
Now, Leto’s Joker was not exactly a resounding success, and even Suicide Squad director David Ayer confirmed that considerable amounts of Joker footage from his film ended up hitting the cutting room floor. (The latest fan rally is to release Ayer's chosen cut of that film.) But fans of the DCEU will likely be intrigued to see Leto return and understand what role he was intended to play in Snyder’s ongoing vision. Tagging in both Ayer and Leto, the Justice League director wrote: “Amazing character you created. Honored to have our worlds collide.”
There’s plenty of blurriness happening here, but does it look like Leto has longer locks in this sequence, compared to his slicked-back gangster look from Suicide Squad – something more akin to Heath Ledger’s tangled mop in The Dark Knight? What we do know is that Leto’s role was part of additional shooting for the Snyder Cut, which took place late last year – maybe in the wake of Joaquin Phoenix’s Oscar-winning turn as Arthur Fleck in Joker, an incarnation of the character which already feels like it’s entered the wider cultural consciousness, this is another chance for Leto’s incarnation to do the same. We’ll find out whether Leto’s Joker makes a better impression when Zack Snyder’s Justice League hits screens on 12 March via HBO Max – though when and how the Snyder Cut will come to the UK remains to be seen.