Suicide Squad: 12 Ways The Marketing Has Been Genius

6. All The Stories About Jared Leto's Joker Made It Distinct From Heath Ledger's

Suicide Squad Marketing
Warner Bros.

People were onboard with Jared Leto as the Joker by the time he promised he would hurt us all "really, really bad", but there were still questions over whether he was taking the whole thing seriously. Far from a bit of a gag part, the Joker has evolved into a heavy role with almost Shakespearian awe around it; Nicholson's version cemented to a trend of villain casting bigger than Bats and Heath Ledger won a freaking Oscar for his take. The Ledger legacy is a particular sticking point; he went to extreme lengths for the role, and to not follow him up faithfully would be viewed as very disrespectful.

I'm fairly certain that this is the motivation behind the rounds of stories about Leto's behind-the-scenes antics, sending dead pigs to script readings, bullets to Will Smith and, once this stepped up, anal beads and "used" condoms. I've written before how shallow and irritating this all has been, primarily because of how unnecessary it is - Leto can send Margot Robbie as much cr*p as he likes, but do we have to keep hearing about it? Will it make his performance better or worse? No, it simply tells us he's trying to get into character.

And that's why it's also smart; for all the annoyance, it's worked in making Leto's Joker a distinct character in the eyes of fans, all without having to reveal a single frame of additional footage.

Contributor
Contributor

Film Editor (2014-2016). Loves The Usual Suspects. Hates Transformers 2. Everything else lies somewhere in the middle. Once met the Chuckle Brothers.