10 Leading Film Characters That Didn’t Really Go Anywhere
5. The Joker - Suicide Squad (2016)
It is not difficult to imagine fans’ fury at the misfire performance of Jared Leto in Suicide Squad, portraying little more than a tattooed thug who calls himself “The Joker”.
The aim was to introduce The Joker into the DCEU, but Leto’s underuse and underdevelopment led to him being quietly shelved following the backlash against his rendition of the character. Adding insult to injury, Warner Brothers then failed to properly address him in linked films such as Birds of Prey (2020).
Whilst he adds further colour to the proceedings in Suicide Squad, he really does not do anything at all other than to pay lip service to the infamous relationship between Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and The Clown Prince of Crime.
In fact, when Leto’s Joker appears to perish, fans may be forgiven for feeling bad for Harley rather than experiencing any sense of loss as a result of The Joker's apparent demise, since Harley is clearly the more charismatic of the pair. When he returns at the end of the film, it is purely an anticlimax, wasted by the fact that Harley’s next live action adventure saw her go it alone without him!
An extended cut of Suicide Squad tried to redeem Leto’s Joker, but purely added more wanton violence without exploring something more original, such as The Joker reluctantly having to fight alongside Task Force X...