Saturday Night Live Takes A Shot At Jared Leto’s Joker

In the opening minutes of Saturday Night Live‘s latest episode they set their sights on many things, Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Wordle, Senator Ted Cruise, and even Jared Leto’s version of The Joker from Suicide Squad. In the sketch Pete Davidson appeared as tennis star Novak Djokovic, a player who has recently courted controversy after he was deported from Australia for refusing a COVID-19 vaccination and who happens to be nickanmed “The Joker” (due to his name’s pronunciation). When Davidson first appeared in the sketch he remarked that he was probably the “least popular Joker, except for Jared Leto.” 

Leto’s version of the character previously was limited to just the 2016 Suicide Squad movie, with Joaquin Phoenix taking on the role for the 2019 Joker movie and rumors persisting of yet another new version arriving in The Batman. A controversaial take on the DC Comics villain, Leto’s version had a mixed reaction from the very moment it was revealed to the world and remains a sticking point for some. The Oscar-winning actor would actually reprise the role in 2021 for an all-new sequence in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

“I think it’s an evolution. [Suicide Squad and Justice League are] some years apart, and certainly different directors,” Leto said last year during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “When you collaborate with someone as well, just like every guest you have, it brings out a different side or a different joke or a different energy. And when you work with a different director, you bring out different things, or they bring out different things in you. So I loved working with [Snyder], I love his passion. He knows more about this world than almost anybody.”

Even though Leto’s version of the character remains a divisive version, fans eager to see David Ayer’s cut of Suicide Squad largely want to do so because of his increased presence. Ayer previosuly took to social media to hype up his version of the 2016 feature film and the performance by Jared Leto as The Joker that was left on the cutting room floor. Ayer’s tweet simply read “Jared killed it But no one knows” and incldued a photo of Leto in character on set.

Leto can be seen in Suicide Squad and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, both streaming on HBO Max.