According to TheWrap, recent Academy Award winner Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club, Fight Club) is circling the role of the Joker in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad movie.
Interestingly, Ryan Gosling was reportedly first approached for the role, but passed because he didn’t want to commit to a multi-picture deal. Leto was also up for the part of Marvel’s Doctor Strange, but now that Benedict Cumberbatch is in final negotiations for that role, Leto was “led to Warner Bros.,” and the studio is eager to work with him.
TheWrap admits that the Joker was not included in an early version of the Suicide Squad script, but with Ayer doing rewrites, it seems that he’ll be looking to add some gravitas and well-known faces to the cast of supervillains that will lead the film.
Tell us, do you think Jared Leto would make a good Joker? And are you interested in seeing the character unite with some other villains (like Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor) for Suicide Squad? Or do you think it’s too soon that we see the Clown Prince of Crime on the big screen again following Heath Ledger’s iconic performance? Let us know in the comments.
Suicide Squad is set to hit theaters on August 5, 2016.
Listen to the Flickering Myth Podcast thoughts on the Suicide Squad casting news using the player below:
Originally published November 8, 2014. Updated July 3, 2023.
