Justice League: Zack Snyder Explains Why Snyder Cut Dropped Joker’s “We Live in a Society” Line

Zack Snyder’s Justice League trailers got the internet hyped when trailers revealed a scene of Jared Leto’s Joker dropping the infamous “We live in a society…” line. The quote was a reference to the popular Joker meme that circulated the Internet (especially gaming communities) alongside the “Game Joker” trend. Fans started pushing to get “We live in a society” included in the Joker movie, going so far as to start a petition. It didn’t happen with Joker, but Jared Leto seemed deliver in Justice League. However, the final version of The Snyder Cut didn’t have Let’s Joker utter the line – but why?

In a new interview with Wonder Meg, Zack Snyder explains why he chose to cut Joker’s “We live in a society” line from Justice League:

Yes there was a version of that, what I was trying to do was a second for the black and white version of the movie – for the charity version of the movie – there’s a second ending of the movie, of the Jared Leto scene, that included that line. The truth is, it’s an either or moment. When Batman gives the Harley Quinn speech, you either go ‘We live in a society,’ or we do what we did in the movie, and I just thought, the society thing is cool, and maybe one day we’ll all see it, but I also did very much like the broken, the tricked, the vulunerable Joker that you see in the movie. So it’s a trade off of not getting the vulnerable Joker, you get the line… which is cool, and I like it.”

It’s been revealed that Jared Leto ad libbed his takes as Joker (about four versions by Snyder’s count), and each apparently reached a different destination. Snyder and co. wanted to created a verbal sparring session between Ben Affleck’s Batman and Leto’s Joker, with a clear winner between the two. “We live in a society” was the “cool” way Joker ended the conversation; Snyder also had a “rude” version where Joker tries to twist the knife in Bruce’s heart by asking him something along the of ‘Who screamed louder? The boy (Robin)? Or the girl (Lois Lane)?’

Ultimately, Snyder went with the version of the conversation where Batman wins. For all Joker’s attempts to mess with Bruce’s mind, it’s clear that Joker gets unnerved when Batman barks back about the promise he made to a dying Harley Quinn to “F-ing kill” Joker slowly, in the end. Apparently, the long death stare and shakey hand that Leto gave in response to Batman’s line was also ad-libbed – and it’s certainly the take that fans seem to no be loving.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is streaming on HBO Max.