Today, The Hollywood Reporter announced that reshoots are currently underway for Zack Snyder’s Justice League on HBO Max. The report states that Ray Fisher, Ben Affleck, and surprisingly Amber Heard will be returning for the reshoots. The site also reveals that Jared Leto will be joining the cast as he reprises the role of The Joker from 2016’s Suicide Squad. This comes as a shock as the character was never featured in the film’s original theatrical cut by director Joss Whedon.
Many fans hope this means Ben Affleck’s Batman will finally come face-to-face with Jared Leto’s Joker, teased in Batman v Superman with a dead Robin suit in the bat cave. However, fans might be disappointed to learn that in earlier drafts of the Justice League script Joker was featured in a prison riot at Arkham Asylum. The riot is where Deathstroke (Joe Manganiello) originally breaks Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) out of prison. That directly into the post-credit “league of our own” sequence by Lex Luthor.
Joe Manganiello has even recently avoided questions that he would be returning for the reshoots as well. While speaking to Collider he said “If I were a part of it, that wouldn’t be my place to announce that. That would be Zack’s place. So, whether or not that’s happening, that is an answer that is below my NDA level, or whatever you wanna call it.” It’s unknown how large a role Jared Leto will have in the upcoming re-release as it may lead directly into director David Ayer’s original cut of the Suicide Squad that was also never released.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League will stream exclusively on HBO Max in 2021