Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Does Jared Leto’s Joker Really Say “We Live in a Society?”

On Valentine’s Day, the full trailer for Zack Snyder’s Justice League debuted and treated fans of The Joker to a major surprise when it featured a scene Jared Leto‘s Joker with Ben Affleck‘s Batman. That scene saw The Joker begin his conversation with Batman with “We live in a society,” a meme that has frequently been attached to the villain character over the years, most recently with the release of Joker. With the line appearing in the trailer, many fans were eager to see if it would make it into the final film as well and now that Zack Snyder’s Justice League is finally here, that question has been answered.

Warning: minor spoilers for Zack Snyder’s Justice League below.

As fans saw in the full trailer for the so-called Snyder Cut and knew in advance thanks to Snyder’s own comments, Leto’s Joker appears in the Knightmare sequence in the film, a sequence set in an apocalyptic possible future. However, while the trailer shows the Joker goading Batman with the “we live in a society” line, that line doesn’t actually appear in the film. Instead, the Joker uses something else to goad the Dark Knight, taunting him about his various personal losses — including a reference to a dead Boy Wonder.

The goading is effective; it prompts Batman to let the Joker know in no uncertain terms just how he feels about him — it’s revealed then that Harley Quinn is dead and that when Batman does finally kill Joker he’s going to make him suffer. However, the lack of the “we live in a society” line is likely to be a bit disappointing for fans who had got excited about that line finally being canon for the villain by finally having him utter it, rather than it simply be something fans attribute to the character.

As for the scene itself, Snyder recently told the New York Times that it’s part of an entirely new ending for the film and that he added it because he knew that Zack Snyder’s Justice League was his final film in the DCU.

“I added it because this was going to be the last movie I make for the DCU and to have this entire cinematic universe without Batman and Joker meeting up just felt weird,” the filmmaker told the paper. “Jared [Leto] and I had a bunch of conversations about it. I had mentioned it to Ben and I was like, Ben, let’s just do it at my house. I could shoot it in the backyard. Don’t tell the studio and I’m not going to pay you guys. I’m just going to shoot it myself.”

Snyder ended up being able to shoot the scene for real — the “society” line just didn’t make it to the film’s final form.

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

What did you think of Zack Snyder‘s Justice League? Did it live up to your expectations? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.