Rumor has it that in a bold move by Warner Brothers and director David Ayers, the Joker is being added to the new screenplay for the ‘Suicide Squad’ film, with the Clown Prince of Darkness set to be a major player. While not that surprising considering Harley Quinn’s rumored addition to the screenplay, as well as the fact that relaunching the DC Cinematic Universe would ultimately lead to a new Joker being created, it is very exciting to see them launch the character in a new way besides just shoehorning him into a Batman movie and setting him up all over again. This way, he will already be an established villain, the audience will see new dimensions to the character with his relationship to Harley Quinn (a character who average movie-goers who don’t read the comics have never seen before), and the Joker can have more dedicated screen time as a main character in a story, instead of just the villain Batman will eventually face.

Throw in the exciting prospect of Academy Award winner Jared Leto being pursued for the role, and we have some real potential for brilliant movie mayhem here. Leto, fresh off his winning performance in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ has not committed to a new project yet, and rumor has it that he is interested in a blockbuster role in order to get the clout to work on projects of his own. And even though it appears Warner Brothers originally wanted Ryan Gosling to play the Joker (supposedly the renown actor balked at the idea of signing a mulit-picture contract), I can’t imagine another actor with the chops to take on the role of Batman’s arch-nemesis and follow in the imposing footsteps of Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger.

With this is mind, the ‘Suicide Squad’ movie just keeps sounding better and better. With rumors of roles being offered to Will Smith, Tom Hardy and Margot Robbie, as well as Jessie Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor supposedly in play, it sounds like this could be a star-studded powerhouse of a franchise movie, that could introduce a lot of never before seen heroes and villains to DC’s expanding cinematic universe. Look for it to start shooting in 2015 with a release date in 2016.

Source: TheWrap, CinemaBlend