Last night, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the character, director David Ayer revealed our first official full-size look at Jared Leto as The Joker in Warner Bros.’ upcoming Suicide Squad. With Heath Ledger’s iconic performance from The Dark Knight looming large, we figured we’d be in for something entirely different with Leto's take—and we were right.

In keeping with this new Zack Snyder-created tone for the Warner Bros. DC Universe that was set in Man of Steel and will be solidified in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Leto’s Joker is like Nolan’s gritty Batman on steroids. The darkness of Nolan’s trilogy remains, but there’s an added twinge of revelry in the comic book source material as opposed to simply translating everything to “real life.”

suicide-squad-image-jared-leto-the-joker
Image via David Ayer

Reactions to the reveal of Leto’s Joker were unsurprisingly strong—just as they were back when Ledger was cast as the character in Nolan’s film. Personally, I won’t be making any judgments on Leto’s iteration of the character until I’ve seen him in action. Seeing a still image of an actor in heavy makeup and costume, without the context of the rest of the film, doesn’t provide a full picture of the character or take—what Ayer offered was a preview of Leto’s Joker, not a full unveiling. Moreover, we know Leto has the capability to be one hell of an actor, so I’m much more interested in the mannerisms and intonation of his performance than I am the superficial layer of makeup.

That said, the internet was in fine form last night, offering some admittedly strong jokes about the new Joker on Twitter, as well as some level-headedness. We’ve done our best to round up some of the better responses and embedded them below for your perusing pleasure.

Suicide Squad also also stars Will Smith as Deadshot, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, Cara Delevingne as Enchantress, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller. The film opens in theaters on August 5, 2016.


[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/colliderfrosty/status/591779016501112832[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/HaleighFoutch/status/591771564309282817[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/TomButler/status/591892683989319680[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/JensenClan88/status/591847217800957952[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/BrianDuffield/status/591835720718790656[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/TheJoeLynch/status/591831485604233216[/EMBED_TWITTER]

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/LimitedPaper/status/591806504124030976[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/Max_Nicholson/status/591791567813226496[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/mikeryan/status/591788312354025474[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/GermainLussier/status/591784490864771075[/EMBED_TWITTER]

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/jerslater/status/591781177146482689[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/moviescramble/status/591899522709778432[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/russfischer/status/591770521798217728[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/devincf/status/591764782132269056[/EMBED_TWITTER]

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/TheDCD/status/591769166870282240[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/Breznican/status/591780465398263808[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/Grabcocque/status/591871745797263360[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/MildlyAmused/status/591820064443265025[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/timothycsimons/status/591786806896656384[/EMBED_TWITTER]