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Film

15th Feb 2021

Zack Snyder explains why he brought back Jared Leto’s Joker for his Justice League cut

Wil Jones

“It seemed uncool to me that we would make it all the way through this incarnation of Batman and Joker without seeing them come together.”

At the weekend, the first official trailer for the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League dropped, filled with all the ridiculous over-the-top imagery that you’d expect from the director.

The scene that got everyone talking though was the face-off between Ben Affleck’s Batman, and Jared Leto’s Joker.

After the failure of the original version of Justice League, it looked like those two versions of the characters would never meet – especially when Joaquin Phoenix starred in Joker and Robert Pattinson was cast in the new Batman film.

But then it was announced that Zack Snyder was brining back Leto’s version of the Clown Prince of Crime for at least one scene in his new version of Justice League.

Speaking to Vanity Fair, Snyder has explained his decision to resurrection the controversial take on the character.

“The cool thing about the scene is that it’s Joker talking directly to Batman about Batman,” said the director. “It’s Joker analysing Batman about who he is and what he is.”

“That’s the thing I also felt like fans deserved from the DC Universe. That is to say, the Jared Leto Joker and the Ben Affleck Batman, they never really got together.”

“It seemed uncool to me that we would make it all the way through this incarnation of Batman and Joker without seeing them come together.”

Zack Snyder was originally meant to be the director of 2017’s Justice League, following on from Batman Vs Super-Man: Dawn of Justice, and being DC’s answer to The Avengers.

However, Joss Whedon was eventually brought in to rework the script and do extensive reshoots on the film.

After the released version was hated by both critics and fans, it was announced that Snyder’s version would be finished and released to HBO Max on March 18th. No UK release has been announced yet.