The DC Extended Universe is not a movie series without its controversies. Just this month, the most-recent entry into the DCEU, ‘Justice League’ received a lukewarm response upon its official big screen release, and could end up losing Warner Bros. around $100 million when all is said and done in the worldwide box office. A shame, as this year’s ‘Wonder Woman’ did incredibly well both with the critics and wider audience, taking in over $800 million across the globe. ‘Justice League’ should really have broken a billion.
Margot Robbie and Jared Leto in ‘Suicide Squad’
One of the earlier disappointments for many from the DCEU was ‘Suicide Squad’. Released in 2016, the film saw a roster of DC’s most recognisable villains come together in the titular team, also known as Task Force X. Ran by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), they were forced to tackle some of the most dangerous missions to help save the world from a grim fate, in a less-than-ethical program that would see a bomb in their brains detonated if they refused to help.
Whilst many of the actors involved in the production, such as Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Will Smith as Deadshot were praised for their performances, it’s the overall narrative that left many feeling cold. The villain being Enchantress (Cara Delevingne) for example wasn’t up everybody’s street.
Many had hoped that the fresh version of The Joker (Jared Leto) being involved in the film would mean that he’d be the primary antagonist for the Squad, but his story actually ended up being somewhat of a B-plot. That’s something the film’s director, David Ayer truly regrets.
Taking to his Twitter account to respond to a fan who had included him in a conversation about the DCEU, the director admitted: “Believe me. I agonize over this. Yes. Joker should have been main bad guy.”
Making the Joker the main villain of the movie doesn’t necessarily mean ‘Suicide Squad’ would have been a colossal success, but it would certainly have ticked more of the boxes of viewers who came into the film, who were hoping for a lot of Joker footage after the heavily Joker-centric teasers and trailers put out by the studio.
Still, there’s always time for the DCEU to bring the Joker more heavily into storylines of the future, and he’s even got a collaborative film with Quinn in early production, so we wouldn’t feel too put out by his lack of inclusion in ‘Suicide Squad’.
More: David Ayer Admits Regrets Over Joker’s Lack Of ‘Suicide Squad’ Screen Time
We’ll bring you more news on the upcoming entries in the DCEU as and when we get it.
