A week after giving fans a blurry glimpse of Jared Leto’s new Joker look for the Justice League director’s cut, Zack Snyder is back with even more details about Leto’s return, and why his version of the Joker is in a very different place than the last time we saw him in Suicide Squad. According to Snyder, Leto’s Joker will appear in a “Knightmare” sequence similar to the one in Batman V Superman where Ben Affleck’s Batman navigates a post-apocalyptic world that’s been ravaged by Darkseid. Only this time, instead of encountering an evil version of Henry Cavill’s Superman, Batman will find a long-haired, “road weary” Joker who will act as a motivational warning of what’s to come. Via Vanity Fair (which also has exclusive photos of Leto’s new look):
“The cool thing about the scene is that it’s Joker talking directly to Batman about Batman,” Snyder said. “It’s Joker analyzing Batman about who he is and what he is. That’s the thing I also felt like fans deserved from the DC Universe. That is to say, the Jared Leto Joker and the Ben Affleck Batman, they never really got together. It seemed uncool to me that we would make it all the way through this incarnation of Batman and Joker without seeing them come together.”
Part of that discussion will involve how the Joker gave Batman “the most significant personal injury to his life” by murdering Robin, which Snyder had hoped to explore in future films. The director has previously confirmed that the dead Robin is Dick Grayson (as opposed to Jason Todd in the comics), and he had a whole story planned out where Carrie Kelley from The Dark Knight Returns would’ve became the new Robin in his films. Realizing that he’s probably done with the DC Extended Universe, Snyder should use the Knightmare scene in Justice League to at least give fans a taste of the backstory he’s been sitting on for Affleck’s Batman and Leto’s Joker.
(Via Vanity Fair)