Justice League trailer: First look at ‘Snyder cut’ teases secret Joker crossover

Eagle-eyed viewers have spotted a clue to a possible Jared Leto comeback

Zack Snyder’s director’s cut of Justice League features a Joker Easter egg, according to eagle-eyed fans.

The first official trailer for the Snyder cut of the film was launched at this weekend’s virtual convention DC FanDome, with viewers spotting a small cameo by a Joker card in among the post-apocalyptic wreckage of a scene.

The card’s appearance has led to fans theorising that Snyder originally wanted Jared Leto’s Joker to cross over into his future DC films in some capacity.

Leto portrayed Joker in 2016’s Suicide Squad, which was written and directed by David Ayer. That movie did have a cameo, however, from Ben Affleck’s Batman, with its final scene teasing Batman’s future involvement in the series.

After 2016, Affleck departed the Batman role and Ayer was removed from the Suicide Squad sequel in favour of Guardians of the Galaxy mastermind James Gunn. Snyder, too, appeared to have been phased out of the DC Universe.

Recent months have sparked rumours of a turnaround, however. Last week (20 August), it was revealed that Affleck is returning to the Batman role in a multiverse crossover Flash movie that will also feature the return of Michael Keaton as Batman.

Snyder’s Justice League cut is also being released by US streaming service HBO Max following an extensive fan campaign. A panel at DC FanDome confirmed that it will be released as a four-part miniseries instead of as a full-length film, with each instalment clocking in at an hour long.

In early August, Walter Hamada, the president of DC Films, confirmed that the next slate of DC movies aren’t inherently connected to one another, but can share elements if a filmmaker so chooses.

“What the multiverse means is we can tell these great stories where we can tell different stories,” he explained. “There’s one earth which has Gal [Gadot, star of Wonder Woman] and Ezra [Miller, who plays The Flash], and another where we can have Batman, and then there’s Joker, which isn’t part of either continuity … Our focus is telling great stories.”

Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill and Gal Gadot in ‘Justice League,’ and Jared Leto in ‘Suicide Squad’ (Warner Bros)

The first footage from The Batman was also revealed at DC FanDome, with fans praising an unrecognisable Colin Farrell in the role of The Penguin.

The Justice League director’s cut will be released on HBO Max in 2021.