Jared Leto has shared a gruesome piece of Zack Snyder’s Justice League fan art, showing his Joker holding Batman’s severed head before an evil Superman. The star first played the Clown Prince of Crime in 2016’s Suicide Squad, though the final version of the film ended up including significantly less screen time for the Joker than was promised in the trailers. Leto returned to the role in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, where he filmed a proper confrontation scene with Ben Affleck’s Batman, set in the apocalyptic Knightmare future.
Without a doubt, Leto’s Joker is one of the most divisive portrayals of the villain in DC history. Many fans condemned the performance along with Suicide Squad as a whole, while others lamented the final studio edit of the film that severely restricted the character. Joker’s return in the Snyder Cut of Justice League was celebrated by many of the fans who pushed for the director’s cut release. However, some remain disappointed that Leto’s Joker never really got a chance to show off the villain’s darkest sides in the DCEU.
In a new piece of fan art by Instagram-based artist Hasan Kazi (ihasankazi.psd), Leto’s Joker is depicted in his Snyder Cut Knightmare outfit, brandishing Batman’s severed mask as Superman, Deathstroke, Cyborg, Flash and others all stare. Clearly, the piece appealed to Leto, who shared the art to his own Instagram story uncaptioned. It’s fun to see a talented artist like Kazi getting recognized by the subject of his work, and equally fun to see Leto still clearly attached to the Joker character.
While Leto didn’t get to do much in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, he would have had a much larger role in the cancelled sequel set primarily within the Knightmare future. Unfortunately, due to DC and Warner Bros. opting to go in a different direction with the DCEU than Snyder’s original vision, those plans will probably never take shape on screen. A comic book continuation of Snyder’s planned story seems more likely at this point, though even that may be a longshot.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that Leto has put on the Joker makeup for the last time. Affleck is coming back to play Bruce Wayne again in The Flash, so while the overall Justice League sequel plan has been cancelled, individual characters from that part of the DCEU can certainly still pop up in the future. Maybe he’ll feature in the third Suicide Squad film. Or maybe he and Batfleck will one day get a chance to continue their Justice League stare-down.
