David Ayer Says Joker’s ‘Damaged’ Tattoo Was ‘One Step Too Far’

While Joaquin Phoenix’s brand-new Joker is frollicking?around New york subway platforms, the creator with the previous movie Joker is checking on social media marketing in what he?says?were his missteps within his unconventional concept of the.

That man is David Ayer, the author and director of 2016’s?Suicide Squad, which featured a Joker, played by Jared Leto. Rather than your existing Crown Prince of Crime when using the permanent grin as well as dirty, scarred agent of chaos that Heath Ledger took part in?The Dark Knight, we ended up Leto covered in pasty white skin, one rubber glove, fake teeth, and plenty of tattoos – along with a conspicuous “Damaged” over the forehead. Ha ha?

It’s this kind of detail that Ayer now says was “one step past the boundary.” (That it was his idea, too.)

Even while offering this concession, Ayer maintains that they still liked the detail, and reiterated easier explanation that he gave in interviews (like this one in?Empire) before Suicide Squad became available about why the Joker would ink that word on his face: Namely anytime the Joker killed Robin and Batman retaliated by breaking his teeth and locking him away in Arkham Asylum Joker got that word etched into his face as the “message to Batman” that his smile were being permanently damaged. (I reckon that Arkham has a truly great in-house tattoo artist?)

Ah, numerous astute fans on Twitter noted that Ayer’s explanation doesn’t make while using the finished film; we percieve Joker using the grill he gets after Batman knocks his teeth out?before the events that Ayer describes. The director then admitted on Twitter that Suicide Squad‘s “timeline was changed” after shooting.

As an gent who has sat through?Suicide Squad (multiple times!) this is often maybe the least surprising thing That i have ever heard; the film had obviously been heavily massaged while in the editing room. (Rumors at the moment was that Warner Bros. was really enthused from the step to the film’s more colorful and comedic trailers which they attempted to rework Ayer’s very dark film for it to be lighter.) But and you slice it, the “Damaged” tattoo was a bizarre choice. Will audiences become more welcoming of Phoenix’s Joker? We’ll really need to wait and discover – and you never know, maybe that movie gets changed after filming, too.