The legendary Batman foe the Joker made his first ever comic book appearance on April 25, 1940. To celebrate the 75th anniversary of DC Comics greatest villain, Suicide Squad director David Ayer offered up the first real lookat actor/musician Jared Leto in the Joker role for the upcoming blockbuster film.
In addition to the Jokers trademark green hair and red lips, Ayers version of the villain also features blackened teeth, dozens of HAHA tattoos across his body and ink on Jokers forehead that reads Damaged.
The new Joker photo, as well as the blurry green-haired Leto photowhere the actor aims his camera toward the viewer, are both inspiredby framestaken from the classic graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke. Considering that Ayer has twice hinted atthat Alan Moore-written origin story suggests that Letos Joker will have more in common with the graphic novels rendition of the supervillain than the versions previously portrayed on the big screenby Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger. In The Killing Joke, the Joker is introduced as a failed stand-up comic turned small-time hood who is chemically disfigured and driven insane all in one bad day.
Suicide Squad is due out August 5, 2016 and boasts an all-star cast playing DC Comics villains. Will Smith (Deadshot), Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Cara Delevingne (Enchantress) and Joel Kinnaman (Rick Flagg) and more will star alongside Letos Joker in the Dirty Dozen-inspired film about the incarcerated anti-heroes recruitment by the government for a suicide mission.
Suicide Squad will be the third film in the recently rebooted DC Comics cinematic universe, following Man of Steel and the March 2016-bound Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.