Todd Phillips’s Joker just became the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever. But, don’t you forget the 2016 version played by Jared Leto! Just a day after the record was announced, Suicide Squad director David Ayer is sharing a never-before-seen test image of his other tatted-up Joker in a slick white tuxedo. Check out the unused look:
No matter your thoughts on Jared Leto’s Joker, you have to admit his Clown Prince of Crime had serious style! The actor donned a slew of crazy cool outfits such as a purple trench coat, silver suit, and black tuxedo, but here’s one that never hit the big screen. As shared above via David Ayer’s Instagram, Jared Leto was fitted to wear a white tuxedo jacket with two gold chains, as he showed off his chest tattoos in lieu of a shirt. However, as the Suicide Squad director revealed, he decided to go with black to best fit his comic book origins.
As you can imagine, Jared Leto’s Joker went through several rounds of costume tests ahead of filming the movie, and this one is likely one of tons yet to be seen by fans. Since the character is in conversation recently with Joaquin Phoenix’s iteration impressing critics and racking up box office numbers, David Ayer picked a prime time to go back down memory lane and remind DC fans of his work on the Joker.
With the Todd Phillips movie’s success, one does wonder what will come of Jared Leto’s version moving forward. Joaquin Phoenix’s version seems to be favored over Leto’s among the masses, but it’s not part of the DC Extended Universe. Phillips made the movie as a solo film not meant to meet Batman or connect to other Warner Bros films based on comics. In fact, the most recent Joker is only vaguely inspired by the villain’s origins and largely in the vein of Scorsese’s King of Comedy and Taxi Driver.
The upcoming Harley Quinn-focused feature, Birds of Prey seems to be writing Leto’s Joker out of the universe as Margot Robbie’s character will be broken up with him. Also, James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad doesn’t seem to be adding him on to the cast either. Gunn recently said Joker isn’t part of the team in the comic books to begin with so it wouldn’t be strange if he wasn’t included.
Jared Leto was apparently not happy with the treatment of his DCEU character. (Understandably so?) It certainly sounds like his version had a brief life on the big screen and will stay that way. The actor will soon take on another comic book role with Morbius from Sony’s Spider-Verse, coming to theaters on July 31, 2020!
