It may have inspired a thousand dudebros to get similar ink, but the majority of fans were never sold on the multitude of tattoos sported by Jared Leto’s Joker in Suicide Squad. Even director David Ayer admitted that he might have gone a little too far, and if anything, it was incredibly vain for the Clown Prince of Crime to turn his body into a shrine to himself, especially when he’s typically focused on chaos for chaos’ sake instead of self-gratification.
Yesterday brought the first non-blurry images of the character’s return in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and one of the first things to notice was the complete absence of tattoos. This has led to some questions as to how an incarcerated maniac found either the time or approval to undergo such extensive laser removal surgery, presumably at the taxpayer’s expense, but in a new interview, Snyder tried to shed a little more light on the matter.
“I would say that there’s been some water under the bridge. Who knows what’s happened. I don’t know if he’s wearing makeup, I don’t know what’s happening. It’s hard to say exactly.”
That makes it sound pretty clear that the reason why Justice League‘s Joker doesn’t have any tattoos is because Snyder didn’t want him to, which is fair enough. The director has already admitted that his all-new take on the dismal ensemble superhero epic isn’t necessarily official DCEU canon, although the fans clearly disagree, so technically he’s under no obligation to explain the aesthetic changes.
It would have sped things up for Leto in the makeup chair as well, even if he was only on set for a few days, but those that have patiently waited for the Snyder Cut of Justice League are much more excited to see how the actor fares with his second stab at the Joker than they are worried about the canonical explanations behind his disappearing body art.