Justice League: First full look at Jared Leto’s Joker from the HBO Max film

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

WARNING: The following article contains plot spoilers for Zack Snyder's Justice League

The first official look of Jared Leto as the Joker in Zack Snyder’s Justice League is here, thanks to the fine folks over at Vanity Fair. As you can see, much has changed for the character since he appeared in David Ayer's Suicide Squad. Gone are the character's tattoos and pimp-like attire. Instead, Snyder's version has the Clown Prince of Crime sporting long green locks, a hospital gown, and surgical gloves. If you ask me, it looks as if Leto's Joker has just escaped from Arkham Asylum, perhaps having stolen his new outfit from some unfortunate member of the institution's medical staff.

With regard to how Joker fits into the Snyder Cut of Justice League, Vanity Fair revealed: “Joker appears in the new film during a sequence set on a ruined Earth after the alien tyrant Darkseid invades and decimates the planet. It’s a dream sequence, a psychic vision, experienced by Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne that reveals what will happen if the superheroes fail to stop the onslaught. Joker is sort of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, supplying motivation through terror.”

“The cool thing about the scene is that it's Joker talking directly to Batman about Batman,” Snyder told the outlet. “It’s Joker analyzing 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.”

In addition to presenting fans with a 4-hour cut of his original vision for Justice League, Zack Snyder also plans to answer some burning questions that have been kicking around the DCEU for some time, including why Bruce Wayne, in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, had a Joker card taped to his gun. According to Snyder, it all ties back to Robin, and how Joker was perhaps involved in the Boy Wonder's untimely death.

“I’d always wanted to explore the death of Robin,” Snyder told Vanity Fair. “And if there ever was going to be a next movie, which, of course, there probably won’t be, I wanted to do a thing where in flashbacks we learn how Robin died, how Joker killed him and burned down Wayne Manor, and that whole thing that happened between he and Bruce.”

For more on Jared Leto's Joker as well as Zack Snyder's Justice League be sure to check out Vanity Fair's full coverage. Meanwhile, the Snyder Cut will head to HBO Max on March 16, 2021.

What do you think of Jared Leto's new Joker look? Personally, I think this is an improvement over Ayer's tattooed version. It's perhaps still a bit too Marilyn Manson for my taste, but I'll take it over the pimped-out version any day of the week.