Thomas Roach on whether The Joker should be in Suicide Squad…
When Warner Bros. announced its DC line up of movies over the next few years, many were surprised and excited for Suicide Squad. This movie will follow a group of DC villains as they tackle suicide missions in order to reduce their sentences. The current rumour is that Jared Leto has been approached to play the iconic Batman villain The Joker in the upcoming movie. The Joker doesn’t usually feature in Suicide Squad but after rewrites to the original script it seems the studio wants to use a much more iconic villain. I for one think this is a mistake.
I am not one who thinks that it is too soon for another Joker after Heath Ledger’s brilliant performance in The Dark Knight. I recognise that there are going to be new versions of characters after reboots so I am all for someone else playing The Joker. But I do think it is a mistake to introduce us to the new version of The Joker in Suicide Squad.
The Joker is the most iconic Batman villain and possibly one of the most iconic villains ever, so it is a mistake to reduce the character to a team up movie. Not that the Joker wouldn’t be a good addition but I think people would rather see The Joker introduced in a new solo Batman movie. As we have an older Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice we can assume that Batman and The Joker have crossed paths before, but not seeing the two characters meet or explore their intimate relationship on screen beforehand will surely leave some people disappointed.
As Warner Bros. playing catch up to Marvel it seems and in order to catch up effectively DC will introduce us to an established DC universe rather than what Marvel did of slowly creating it. Suicide Squad is set to introduce a whole range of villains who will all have likely quarrelled with Batman before and we wont get to see how and when they quarrelled with him. Leaving the audience to decide the origins is a good move but it would mean that DC could never go back. They wouldn’t really be able to do prequels effectively. Maybe putting Joker in Suicide Squad just shows us how confident they are with the project. I do think more could go wrong with the character being introduced to us this way but I hope the studio knows what it is doing.
Overall I do really want to see a new version of the Joker in this rebooted version of the DC universe, but I would rather have him introduced in a solo Batman movie even, if the Joker and Batman already have history with one an other. Not having shown the history between Joker and Batman could be a good thing as it allows the audience to make its own assumption about the relationship between these two characters. However I am sure Warner Bros. will make it work. Who knows, Joker may even cameo in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and this may set up Suicide Squad…
Suicide Squad is being directed by David Ayer and is set for release in 2016.
Listen to the Flickering Myth Podcast talking about Suicide Squad casting using the player below:
Originally published November 17, 2014. Updated July 3, 2023.
