Jared Leto discusses returning as the Joker: "It's hard to say no to that character"

Suicide Squad — (Image credit: Warner Bros.)

As controversial as Jared Leto’s take on the Joker might have been, the actor is returning to the role in Zack Snyder’s Justice League – and Snyder has teased a new look for this “road-weary” version of the Joker. Whether Leto will be back after that is up in the air, however.

Speaking to the Variety Awards Circuit podcast, the actor said about a possible return: “It's hard to say no to that character… There are very few characters that you play that have absolutely no rules, you know, that you could just go to town. It's so much fun, that energy. I had a lot of fun with that character.”

While this might be met with a mixed response from fans, it should be noted that Suicide Squad director David Ayer has said that the version of the Joker glimpsed in that film doesn’t really reflect Leto’s performance: “Jared was pretty mistreated during this. No one has seen his performance. It was ripped out of the movie.”

Jared was pretty mistreated during this. No one has seen his performance. It was ripped out of the movie. https://t.co/gSOeyJjtydJune 2, 2020

If the Ayer Cut of Suicide Squad ever materialises, we might finally get to see this other version of the Joker – though with The Suicide Squad, a James Gunn-directed soft-reboot/sequel to the original, headed our way this year, it seems unlikely that we’ll be seeing the Ayer Cut anytime soon. Leto sounds supportive of the release, though, commenting: “I would love for [Ayer] to be able to work on that and make the film of his dreams.”

It seems Leto would happily return to his role, so we could be seeing his tattooed-take on the Clown Prince of Crime again someday.

We’ll probably next see the Joker in the Snyder Cut, which is due for release this March. At the moment it’s uncertain if there’ll be any follow-ups to the new version of Justice League, with a new report suggesting the answer is no. The Suicide Squad releases August 6 2021. Until then, check out our guide to watching DC movies in order to get up to speed.

I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.