Why Birds of Prey Didn’t Bring Back Jared Leto’s Joker

Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) director Cathy Yan explains why they didn’t bring back Jared Leto’s Joker.

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Director Cathy Yan explains why they didn’t bring back Jared Leto’s Joker in Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). In several days, Warner Bros’ next DC film will hit theaters and it will mark the return of Margot Robbie’s fan-favorite character, Harley Quinn. This time, she’s back with a new gang with Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress, Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary, Ella Jay Basco as Cass Cain, and Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya. This is her first big screen appearance after debuting in 2016’s Suicide Squad.

The girl squad will go up against Ewan McGregor’s Black Mask, the film’s primary antagonist, as well as Chris Messina’s Victor Zsasz. One familiar face, however, is confirmed to not make an appearance: Leto’s Joker, who was also introduced in the David Ayer villain-centric movie. Fans might be disappointed that Yan decided to leave the Clown Prince of Crime out of Birds of Prey since he’s typically tied to Harley’s shenanigans, but she justifies the creative choice in a new interview.

Speaking with Heroic Hollywood while doing the press rounds for Birds of Prey, Yan was asked why there was no need to have the Joker in the movie. For her, she wants the story to focus on Harley and her new allies as they go up against Black Mask. So after addressing that the DC couple have broken up, the narrative primarily centers on Harley’s mission at hand. Yan said:

Well for us, I think the movie starts with the breakup and then it’s all about Harley and we just wanted to work with that and whatever we needed him to be… just to show that he existed and that there was a breakup, but the focus of the movie is definitely not on The Joker.

Robbie’s Harley talks about the Joker break-up in the last trailer for Birds of Prey, and from the way the whole sequence was set-up, it sounded like she initiated the split. She goes through the stereotypical heartbroken motions, but after that, she bands with the rest of the Birds and gears up for a new adventure. Yan’s explanation works narrative-wise for the film, but considering the future is bleak for Leto’s Joker, it was always dubious if he’d be in the upcoming movie. At one point, there were even plans of a Joker and Harley spin-off, but there’s been no update from that project. Between Joaquin Phoenix’s critically acclaimed iteration of the Clown Prince of Crime and Leto’s next comic book gig as Morbius the Living Vampire in Sony’s Morbius, chances of the Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman reprising his DCEU role seemingly get slimmer by the day.

After Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), fans will next see Harley in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad next year. Most of the original cast from Ayer’s iteration won’t be partaking in the follow-up movie, including Leto’s Joker. Like Yan, Gunn explained his story doesn’t really call for Joker’s involvement. While, there’s still a chance that he might make an appearance, if Warner Bros. are ready to move on from his version, then it’s probably for the best that they slowly disassociate him from other DC characters who still have a future in the franchise.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/birds-prey-no-joker-jared-leto-explained/