Suicide Squad: 11 Key Influences You'll See In Jared Leto's Joker
4. The Dark Knight Returns
Leave it to Umberto Gonzalez to spoil the juiciest parts of any film. We already knew that Ben Affleck's Batman was going to be based on The Dark Knight Returns, thanks to his bulkier frame, shorter ears and the batsuit's colours, but the self-proclaimed "ace scooper" also suggested early in production that Leto's Joker would also be based on the same source. But before you start thinking he's going to snap his own neck at the end to incriminate Batman in murder, Gonzalez initially seems to have only been talking in aesthetic terms:
What Im being told, Letos Joker is definitely based on The Dark Knight Returns version. Hes lean and scarred but his suit does have broad shoulders.
That turned out to be at least partly true, as the iconic silver suit from the comic has been given something of an update for Leto (though the shoulder pads aren't quite so extreme). It is perhaps also important to file away the idea of The Dark Knight Returns' Joker as a grand manipulator for later, because that does seem to be playing a big part in Joker's role for Suicide Squad. He probably won't kill himself, but you get the sense that he will engineer his way out of confinement to set up a top-billed face-off in the impending stand-alone Batman universe.
