Jared Let's Joker is set to make his return to the DCEU in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and he’s the perfect character for Snyder’s signature dark style. Plans for a crossover between Ben Affleck’s Batman and Leto’s Joker were in place early on during Snyder’s time heading up the DCEU, but they fell through when the director became distanced from the franchise. Fans will finally get that confrontation when the Justice League Snyder Cut releases on HBO Max on March 18.
Since his early days in comic book adaptation, Zack Snyder has specialized in the darker, more violent corners of the medium. His early forays into the genre with 300 and Watchmen worked well as R-rated films because their source material was already loaded with more mature content. Those movies weren’t universally beloved, but they still garnered notable praise for their visuals and effects and became fast favorites for many viewers. However, once Snyder moved into the DCEU with Man of Steel, his dark approach became more controversial.
Many of the criticisms that plagued the early DCEU had to do with their hyper-serious tone. What worked with Watchmen and 300 didn’t fit as cleanly with characters like Superman and Batman – characters who’ve had their share of grim plotlines in DC comics, but who are still generally known by their benevolence and strict moral codes. Changes like having Batman kill people rubbed many fans the wrong way, though there remained some who loved Snyder’s darker take on DC’s classic icons. Now that Snyder is working with Jared Leto’s Joker, however, he’s finally using a character who naturally fits with his own signature style.
Snyder's DCEU Tone Fits A Villain More Than Heroes
In Watchmen, Snyder’s first foray into the realm of Superhero films, even the supposedly heroic characters were flawed, corrupt, and in many cases reprehensible. It’s a story about how dangerous superheroes likely would be if they actually existed – similar in many ways to the Supes in The Boys. Though many who read the original graphic novel disagreed with certain changes Snyder made to the story in his adaptation, his tone was at the very least consistent with the subject matter. That’s because the dark, gritty style of his films lends itself much more easily to villains than heroes.
Snyder attempted to add some of the Watchmen edge to the heroes of the DCEU, but most of those experiments ended in condemnation from fans. However, if Snyder had applied the same approach to a villain’s story – say, the Joker – it likely would have gone down much better. Where Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was in part panned for its forced seriousness, Suicide Squad’s Joker was criticized for not taking the character seriously enough. By bringing Snyder and Leto’s Joker together, both problems are effectively solved.
The Joker Is The Spirit Of DC Anarchy
Zack Snyder’s Justice League world relied heavily on ideas of instability and ruin – on how quickly the order and peace of the world, or a team, can be shattered and broken. That chaotic philosophical bent is the cornerstone of Joker’s character, and it bodes well for the two being brought together. Snyder has announced that Leto’s Joker will appear in Batman’s Knightmare, a foreboding vision/dream sequence showing what would happen to the Earth if Darkseid should defeat the Justice League. As a past symbol of madness and destruction in Bruce Wayne’s life, Joker fits in naturally.
In all his work as a creative lead in the early DCEU, the impending danger of collapse and failure stood as one of the franchise’s main overarching themes. The films tried to look at heroes in desperation, what they would do to prevent disaster, and how they might act if they failed. The execution of that theme was less than perfect, and it certainly didn’t help that the MCU’s Avengers: Infinity War delivered a much more effective and critically successful version of that story. Snyder’s return to Justice League is a chance to finish his own rendition, and the inclusion of Leto’s Joker is a perfect addition to drive it home.
Snyder's Movies Explore Characters As A Product Of Trauma
To say that Zack Snyder is a polarizing creative mind would be a wild understatement. His supporters have gone to battle for him tirelessly over the years, while his detractors have been brutal in their critiques. The forced, “edgelord” nature of Snyder’s dark tone – as its seen by some – is at the heart of many of those critiques, and it would be inaccurate to say that the director’s attempts at telling stories of loss, trauma, failure and grief have always succeeded at their lofty emotional goals. Still, Snyder has built a career by attempting to tell complicated stories of troubled, wounded characters – a trend that will continue in his cut of Justice League.
Obviously, the Joker himself has had numerous tragic backstories and explanations for how he became the deranged scourge of Gotham, so his inclusion fits with Snyder’s thematic interest in traumatization. Beyond that though, Joker’s return is necessary to properly wrap up Ben Affleck’s Batman story. Batman was the hero at the center of Snyder’s DCEU, and his core motivations were the tragic events of his past and an intense fear of decimation in the future. By including Joker in the Knightmare sequence, Snyder can let Batman confront his recent traumatic past – particularly the death of Robin – and thereby move into the future prepared to do whatever necessary to stop Darkseid.
Snyder Should Have Made A Joker DCEU Movie
Hindsight is 2020, but Jared Leto’s return as the Joker in Zach Snyder’s Justice League certainly opens speculation on what might have been. If the DCEU has not been so driven to compete toe-to-toe with the MCU from the start, it might have started off much more successfully. Rather than build out compelling, interesting stories of individual characters and eventually moved toward larger crossovers, the DCEU forced too many plotlines and too much big picture story too soon. But what if it hadn’t?
Perhaps Snyder and Leto both ended up working on the wrong DC projects. If they’d united in a Joker-focused film instead, the result could have been much better. There’s no guarantee that a Snyder Joker solo movie would have been a success, but it at least would have had potential. By focusing on DC’s darkest character, Snyder could have dived head-first into the project, staying true to both his own creative approach and the source material at the same time. Would it have been a hit? The world likely will never know. But fans will at least get a brief glimpse of what could have when Jared Leto’s Joker returns in the Justice League Snyder Cut.
