Suicide Squad: 11 Key Influences You'll See In Jared Leto's Joker

8. Hannibal Lecter

While Nicholson's Joker was a criminal bruiser and Ledger's was a man on a ceaseless mission to define himself through disorder, it seems that Leto's creation is going to be more of horror than action. According to plot rumours that emerged long before we even got a first glimpse of what he would look like, this new Joker was being talked about as a fearsome figure more akin to Hannibal Lecter. The idea of his being couped up for the majority of the film, interrogated by Amanda Waller (and possibly Hugo Strange) and playing with his captors like a cat with a mouse is delicious, and it would seem to fit with the latest round of released set images. It seems almost inevitable that Leto's Joker will orchestrate something terrible from his high security cell, manipulating Waller and the Squad into unwittingly doing his bidding before making his break-out (probably with Harley Quinn as his "inside man" having created her out of violence). There's been a lot of talk about the value of fear in Leto's performance (his fellow actors expressed being more than weirded out by him), and there was definitely something Lecter-like in his disarming dark charisma at the end of the first trailer. If they pull it off, it will be a wonderful new take on the character.