Jared Leto’s Joker is set for a solo movie, adding to an already confusing mix of DC films starring the clown prince of crime.
It sounds like the DC Extended Universe is going to keep trying to find ways to bring in audiences. Variety exclusively reports that DC has announced plans to create a solo Joker movie featuring Jared Leto’s version of the character, which was seen in Suicide Squad.
Back in 2017, DC announced plans for a non-DCEU / non-Leto related Joker film, focusing on the character’s origin story. Now, they’ve decided to muddy the waters even more by moving forward with another Joker film that will star Leto. Also, just a reminder, there are 12 DC Comic-related projects underway, and six of them include the Joker; and Leto is not all of them. There are also five Harley Quinn projects hanging out involving Margot Robbie, including the highly anticipated Birds of Prey.
Is anyone else confused?
At least with the Quinn projects, Robbie was set to be our girl Harley in all of them. But it seems DC is hedging their bets when it comes to getting the character right. Who really wants to keep track of more than one Joker? Probably not Batman.
Not much else is known about Leto’s Joker film other than it plans to expand the Suicide Squad world we first entered in 2016. All we know is if it doesn’t have Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, what’s the point?
Who doesn’t want to see more of Joker and Harley Quinn playing off of each other? A movie where Harley finally shows her “pookie” she is not going to be at his beck and call would be amazing. A strong, independent female who is also a bad guy, we want it. We want more of the sarcastic, playful but evil Harley Quinn who steals purses in the midst of all-out war.
When it comes to the news of Jared Leto getting his own Joker film, all it takes is heading to social media to see that there are plenty of people less than impressed by this news.
As plenty of DC fans pointed out, the problem isn’t so much that there is going to be a solo Joker movie, as it is the version of the character that was chosen to get a movie. No offense to Jared Leto, but based on what we saw in Suicide Squad, we aren’t really interested.
On Twitter, there were plenty of jokes made about the clown prince of crime getting his own movie:
Oh boy, a standalone Joker movie....based off the Suicide Squad version of the Joker. It'll be a good year for the clearance bin at Hot Topic when that gets released
— AlphaOmegaSin (@AlphaOmegaSin) June 6, 2018
Remember the buzz before Suicide Squad came out that Jared Leto was so method that he did all this crazy stuff and that his performance as the Joker was amazing but when the movie came out we got this? pic.twitter.com/2olaY0Ny0J
— Manuel Faria (@ManuelDuarte24) June 5, 2018
As another Twitter user pointed out, it doesn’t make sense for the Joker to have his own movie because he is not really a character who changes or develops. Instead, the Joker has always been more of a “plot device” for other characters, such as Harley Quinn and Batman.
While the Joker may act as a foil to Batman, nothing he has done points to him being a deeper character who needs to be explored and explained. The basics of his backstory are enough to show the world how twisted he is, and beyond that mostly we want to see him defeated by the good guys.
Although the same could be said for Harley Quinn, the reality is that even she is more developed than her villain boyfriend. She had a life and a career before she got caught up in the web of the Joker. In the comics, she has even displayed growth and change as she moved away from the man who made her Harley Quinn.
Does it ruin the Joker to delve into who he is and what his motivations are? I think it does. He is the token villain and serves that purpose well; to go deeper with the character seems like the wrong choice for the DCEU.
The Verge notes that the DCEU could be trying to move away from their “darker, interconnected cinematic universe” following the success of Wonder Woman. The standalone Leto and Robbie films are an effort to “share continuity, but not be so slavishly linked narratively.”
And that would make sense if it weren’t again for those other Joker films hanging around, confusing fans.
Related Story: DC movies: Why not just recast the Joker every time?
We’ll wait and see if Leto can impress us with his Joker, despite Robbie commanding nearly every scene they had together in Suicide Squad. In all honesty, we’d take a whole slew of Quinn films vs. the Joker, played by anyone, anytime.