Suicide Squad Has A Lot of Deleted Joker Scenes Says Jared Leto

One of the more pivotal elements of DC and Warner Bros.’ Suicide Squad movie is the introduction of a new version of The Joker, played by Academy Award-winning actor, Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club). This particular vision of Joker (or “Mr. J”) has been crafted by Suicide Squad director David Ayer into an eccentric and animalistic modern gangster who has a serious (and demented) love-crush on Squad member, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie). It’s a risky new interpretation of an iconic character – one that will have possible far-reaching impact on the DC Extended Universe.

As the first critical reviews of Suicide Squad roll in, it’s been revealed that Leto’s Joker may not be in the film nearly as much as the trailers and marketing materials would have you believe. But according to Leto himself, that wasn’t necessarily the way they planned it, because he apparently did a lot more work onscreen as Mr. J than we see in the theatrical cut of Suicide Squad.

Leto told Telestar first-hand that there were a lot of Joker scenes that director David Ayer shot, but that didn’t make it into the theatrical cut: “There are a lot of scenes that didn’t make it to the final film. Hopefully they will see the light of day. Who knows.“

It’s become a tradition for DCEU films to cause divisive reaction amongst critics and viewers – and with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the reaction was enough to spur Warner Bros. to release an “Ultimate Edition” of the film, one that fans have vastly preferred to the theatrical cut. Could Suicide Squad be headed down a similar path? If there is material like Leto’s Joker just sitting around the cutting room – and the reaction to the film continues to be divisive, or the box office underwhelming – then we likely could see some sort of “special edition” release of the film in the near future.

Word of behind-the-scenes troubles and reshoot changes have plagued Suicide Squad during its production, and while the cast and crew have sworn that all was well during the shoot, it’s starting to look a lot more questionable than that. One wonders what Leto’s expanded role in the film was.

NEXT: Suicide Squad Cast React to Negative Reviews

Suicide Squad blasts into theaters August 5, 2016; Wonder Woman is coming on June 2, 2017; followed by Justice League on November 17, 2017; The Flash on March 16, 2018; Aquaman on July 27, 2018; Shazam on April 5, 2019; Justice League 2 on June 14, 2019; Cyborg on April 3, 2020; and Green Lantern Corps on July 24, 2020.