Jared Leto Ad-Libbed Joker's 'We Live In a Society,' Zack Snyder Says

We live in a society … where Jared Leto Joker is responsible for one of the Batman villain's most iconic (and meme-d) lines of all time? It seems Jared Leto Joker, fresh off of what some are calling an almost redeemable performance in Zack Snyder's Justice League, may have actually contributed something to the DCEU beyond existing as a walking meme and an easy target for dunking upon, coining one of the franchise's – and arguably the character's – most iconic lines of all time, “we live in a society.”

"We went back and forth a bit, and I'll give Jared credit for that little ad-lib there, because it was really, really beautiful," Snyder explained to The Hollywood Reporter of Leto's iconic Joker quip, which he says during his first interaction with Ben Affleck's Batman. Beautiful is definitely a word to describe that line, but okay. 

One of the “most substantial” new clips filmed for the highly-requested Snyder cut, according to the entertainment publication, Snyder says he wrote the scene during lockdown. “It was based on a bunch of ideas that I had had over the years," the director said of his creative process. "I had been planting a bunch of Easter eggs in the other movies that I thought it was time to harvest into this scene.”

Despite his excitement for the film's newer addition, there were some questions about whether Leto would want to reprise his widely-panned role. "Zack and Jared talked for a while," Deborah Snyder, the film's producer said of the pair's interactions during development. "Before we approached the studio, he wanted to make sure that they would be interested. At first, it was like 'No,' and then it was like, 'Well, maybe,' and then Zack was like, 'Do you want to see the scene that I worked on?'"

Eventually, Leto agreed, filming the scene after all, albeit separately from Affleck due to scheduling issues. Yet even with these reported hesitations, it seems the 30 Seconds to Mars frontman was happy with his decision to return as the Joker for the Snyder cut after all. "It's hard to say no to that character," Leto said of highly controversial role on the Variety Awards Circut podcast in December. "There are very few characters that you play that have absolutely no rules, you know, that you could just go to town. It's so much fun, that energy. I had a lot of fun with that character.”

So folks, it seems we do, in fact, live in a society, where we could possibly see more of Jared Leto Joker on the big screen. Just when things were starting to look up!

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