Although he's not a member of Task Force X, Joker has been advertised as a key player in Suicide Squad for over a year now, to the point that he's been one of the main marketing focuses. That's not surpassing considering he's one of the new characters that people who don't read comic books know about. However, we've learned over the last few days that many of Jared Leto's scenes as the Clown Prince of Crime were cut from the theatrical version. Needless to say, Leto wasn't pleased with this, but he has a creepy idea about how they can resurface: him dying.
During an interview with IGN, Leto expressed his frustration with how much of his Joker material didn't make it into Suicide Squad, and if he were to suddenly die, maybe that could be the catalyst for the scenes being released to the public. In his words:
Were there any that didn't get cut? I'm asking you, were there any that didn't get cut? There were so many scenes that got cut from the movie, I couldn't even start. I think that the Joker... we did a lot of experimentation on the set, we explored a lot. There's so much that we shot that's not in the film. If I die anytime soon, it's probably likely that it'll surface somewhere. That's the good news about the death of an actor is all that stuff seems to come out.
I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that's a drastic conclusion, not to mention extremely morbid. It's hard to tell whether Jared Leto's kidding to not, but while there may have been instances of a dead actor's unseen material being released after their death, it's doubtful this would be the only way to see his cut Joker scenes. It certainly wasn't applicable to Leto's Joker predecessor, Heath Ledger. In fact, The Dark Knight Blu-ray and DVD release didn't include any deleted scenes. You can watch the interview for yourself to get a sense of Leto's tone, though it's also worth mentioning that when the IGN interviewer left the room and said he hopes Leto doesn't die anytime soon, Leto simply responded, "We all die."
Director David Ayer has said that there a lot of deleted scenes from Suicide Squad, and ideally they'll be included when the movie is released on home media, like other blockbusters tend to do. That doesn't mean all of those excised Joker moments will be on there, but there will likely be a few. Let's also forget that it's unlikely Suicide Squad will be Jared Leto's last time playing The Joker. With a new Batman movie on the way and Suicide Squad 2 having been discussed, there's a good chance we'll be seeing the DCEU's antisocial, psychotic freak of a clown again.
Suicide Squad is now playing in theaters, and if you've already seen the movie, click here to provide your thoughts about it.
