Jared Leto‘s short-lived time as the Joker may be coming to an end. As you probably saw earlier this week, Forbes ran an exhaustive piece on the DC Extended Universe over at Warner Bros. and we parsed new rumors about Margot Robbie‘s Harley Quinn movie and “Birds Of Prey.” Specifically, some reports that refute recent trade accounts that posited how Harley Quinn would join the “Suicide Squad” film by James Gunn nor would there be a crossover with the still-in-the-works-apparently “Gotham City Sirens” which is another girl-group superhero film by David Ayer. Apparently, she won’t, ok then.
READ MORE: ‘Joker & Harley Quinn’ Writers Tease A ‘Bad Santa’ Meets ‘This Is Us’ Mashup
But there’s more to construe. Within this long article is talk that Jared Leto‘s side of the Joker may be going away. First, it seems that the unofficially tilted ‘Mad Love’-type Joker and Harley Quinn film has also fallen by the wayside according to Forbes. That’s the script written by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the writer/directing pair behind ” Crazy, Stupid, Love,” “Focus” and NBC’s “This Is Us.”
Leto was also supposed to have his own Joker spin-off movie and that seems done too. That would essentially ice Leto out of the role and perhaps the entire DCEU, especially as Todd Phillips‘ “The Joker” with Joaquin Phoenix is already a go and premiering next fall in October.
READ MORE: ‘Suicide Squad’ “Relaunch” Set For Summer 2021 With New Characters; James Gunn Confirmed
Frankly, this wouldn’t be a shock. Leto himself was already puzzled about DC’s plans when the Todd Phillips film was first announced.
READ MORE: The DC Films Universe: All The Movies Coming Soon & In Development
And the DCEU seems to be moving in so many directions and at the same time, trying to course-correct itself. Given all the evidence at hand, it appears they seem to be jettisoning the past. The Snyder-verse era is already done. Henry Cavill is done as Superman, at least for now. Ben Affleck is certainly done as Batman and with James Gunn soft-rebooting “The Suicide Squad”—a film that is said to recast most of the old squad and or fade them out while using new characters—it seems like Leto’s Joker may be a causality of this house cleaning.
READ MORE: Jared Leto’s Joker Is Getting His Own Standalone DCEU Film
Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad” is expected to include Will Smith and Jai Courtney, but no one else, including Harley Quinn. Margot’s Harley obviously has “Birds Of Prey” and well, all of it is a little bit of a mess. But if DC can peel back some of the old layers, discard them and move forward with the popular characters, maybe some of this will make sense to fans.
But honestly, what a sh*tshow and for the sake of the creators and fans, let’s hope they get their house in order.
