As we saw when he returned for the epilogue to Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Jared Leto is completely capable of getting DCEU fans on board with his performance as the Joker, after fans went wild for the Clown Prince of Crime’s long-awaited face-to-face with Ben Affleck’s Batman.
The internet unanimously praising Leto’s contributions to the comic book franchise was unthinkable as recently as last year, when Joaquin Phoenix’s Academy Award-winning performance in Todd Phillips’ Joker pushed the version we first met in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad even deeper into the history books.
The director of the antihero ensemble movie has regularly sang the praises of the Joker we didn’t get to see, with Leto suffering more than most at the hands of studio interference. The Ayer Cut campaign continues to be fought on the battlefield of social media, with the Oscar winner admitting to Variety at the House of Gucci premiere that he’d love to see it happen.
“Absolutely. Why not? Why wouldn’t they? That’s what streaming is for, right?”
Ever since the Snyder Cut was first confirmed to actually be happening for real, rumors of an Ayer Cut announcement have constantly lingered in the background. The filmmaker isn’t hedging his bets, though, but you can bet supporters will never give up the ghost until they see his intended vision of Suicide Squad brought to life.