Suicide Squad: David Ayer debunks major fan theory that The Joker is Robin

'It ain't the case. He's not.'

Jared Leto as iconic psychotic comic book villain the Joker

Suicide Squad writer and director David Ayer has debunked the major fan theory that The Joker is Batman's sidekick Robin.

Legend has it that second Robin Jason Todd was not killed by the psychotic villain after all but instead turned into him. Fans have cited ‘evidence’ in marketing material released during the run-up to Suicide Squad’s, claiming that The Joker’s bullet hole tattoos match up with puncture marks on the graffitied Robin costume seen hanging in the Batcave in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Recently, Ayer was asked in a red carpet interview by WSVN-TV reporter Chris Van Vliet to name the most ridiculous rumour he had heard about the film. “That the Joker is Jason Todd,” he said. “It ain’t the case. He’s not.”

Batman v Superman director Zack Snyder attempted to put an end to the Joker as Robin theory in April, when he said that the Robin costume came from a Robin who had died ten years earlier during “some run in with a young Joker”.

“To me, it was a fun backstory…to play with,” he said. “The whole idea was that there had been loss and sacrifice. [Batman] doesn’t really have a life outside of the cave. I thought by including Robin - a dead Robin - it would help us understand he’s been on quite a little journey.”

So, if we take Snyder and Ayer’s words for it, Robin's death won’t be a feature in Suicide Squad, though it could still form some basis in the solo Batman movie Ben Affleck has reportedly already written.

The idea of Robin becoming The Joker is not as bizarre as it might seem. In the DC Extended Universe’s Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, the Joker brainwashed former Robin Tim Drake into taking over from him after he died, so it’s possible that new films could pick up on and repurpose this plot strand.

Elsewhere in the interview, Ayer spoke about how important it was to give the fans the movie they’re hoping for when making Suicide Squad. “More than anything it’s about the fans,” he said. “You can have your vision but you have to listen to the fans. I grew up as a fan, reading the comics. The movie is going to give the fans what they want.”

Suicide Squad stars Jared Leto as The Joker, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Will Smith as Deadshot and Cara Delevingne as Enchantress. The storyline focuses on a group of villains recruited by a secret government agency to carry out black op missions in exchange for reduced jail sentences and is expected to perform strongly at the global box office.

Suicide Squad arrives in UK cinemas on 5 August.