(SPOILERS for Zack Snyder’s Justice League cut will be found below.)
When fans finally got their first look at Jared Leto’s new look for the Joker in a trailer for Zack Snyder’s Justice League, they absolutely lost their mind when Leto brought a Joker meme to life by saying the line, “We live in a society.” While it was just assumed that Snyder included the clever nod to internet culture given his prolific use of social media (the director has been a non-stop machine hosting virtual screenings and fan Q&As during the pandemic), Snyder has revealed that it was actually Leto who came up with the idea on the spot.
“We went back and forth a bit, and I’ll give Jared credit for that little ad-lib there, because it was really, really beautiful,” Snyder told The Hollywood Reporter. However, as fans are slowly learning now that the Snyder Cut has finally been released, the “We live in a society” line does not appear in the final film and was only included in the trailer, which makes sense when you think about it. Leto’s Joker appears in a Knightmare scene that takes place in apocalyptic future where Darkseid has successfully invaded Earth and turned Superman evil with the Anti-Life Equation. There’s no longer a society to live in because Darkseid destroyed it.
While Snyder offered a fans their first glimpse of the Knightmare world in Batman V Superman, he had always wanted to include a second trip to that world that included a meet-up between Ben Affleck’s Batman and Leto’s Joker. Snyder was so dead-set on making the scene, that at one point, he was just going to shoot it in his backyard. Via The New York Times:
“Jared 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.”
Fortunately, Warner Bros. got on board with the Leto scene, and Snyder was able to shoot the Knightmare sequence late last year. However, due to scheduling issues, Leto and Affleck were unable to film together, so their long-awaited meet-up is the work of some very careful editing.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
