Just as it was announced that Warner Brothers was planning a ‘Joker’ origin movie produced by Martin Scorsese but not tied to the existing DC Extended Universe and not starring Jared Leto, it turns out Leto is not being left out in the cold. His tatted up, grill-faced anarchist punk take on the Clown Prince of Crime will return for at least two more DC movies– ‘Suicide Squad 2’ and ‘Gotham City Sirens’. Neither comes as much of a surprise. After all, Leto’s Joker debuted in ‘Suicide Squad’ (although, notoriously most of his scenes were cut, making his role more of a cameo) and ‘Sirens’ will spotlight his on-screen girlfriend Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie). Both movies will be directed by David Ayer, who directed the first ‘Squad’.
This info didn’t come from Leto himself, who is remaining mum on his Joker’s future, “Talking about Joker is like talking about ‘Fight Club’: unless you want to gargle your testicles, it’s probably better to leave it. He’s liable to jump out of the cupboard and just start having fun.” In a separate interview, he only remarked, “I have no idea. I can’t confirm… maybe I know, but I can’t confirm nor deny. There are a lot of moving parts with that stuff and we’ll see what happens next.”
As was widely reported, Leto went full method when it came to this iconic role. He had a lot to live up to, after Jack Nicholson’s scenery chewing depiction in 1989’s ‘Batman’ then Heath Ledger’s decidedly darker performance in 2008’s ‘The Dark Knight’ which won the actor a posthumous Academy Award. Leto remained in character at all times when on the set of ‘Suicide Squad’ which actually irritated some of his castmates. He was reportedly a much larger focus in the film originally, but when moviegoers balked at the darkness and violence of ‘Batman V Superman’, ‘Suicide Squad’ had to undergo hasty reshoots and editing to lighten the tone and Leto’s performance was one of the major casualties.
“I think that I brought so much to the table in every scene that it was probably more about filtering all of the insanity, because I wanted to give a lot of options, and I think there’s probably enough footage in this film for a Joker movie. If I were to die tomorrow, maybe the studio would roll something out.”
“I always wished this film was Rated R, and I had actually said that when we were starting that if a film was ever going to be rated R it should be the one about the villains.”
Now that 20th Century Fox’s ‘X-Men’ spin-offs ‘Deadpool’ and ‘Logan’ have been released with R-ratings and scored big, that threshold has been crossed, proving that comic book movies made strictly for adults can succeed.
Would you like for ‘Suicide Squad 2’ and/or ‘Gotham City Sirens’ to be rated R? Are you ready for another, possibly bigger, dose of Leto’s Joker?
Source: Deadline
