Jared Leto Was Responsible For The "We Live In A Society" Line In The 'Zack Snyder's Justice League' Trailer
It was a line that reverberated throughout the internet when it was uttered in a trailer for Zack Snyder's Justice League: "We live in a society." For those unfamiliar, that's a well-known internet meme, and not something you'd expect to see in a serious-minded superhero movie. And it was a line said, without a hint of irony, by Jared Leto's Joker in new scene shot for director Zack Snyder's new four-hour cut of Justice League. So whose idea was that line? None other than Leto, of course.
One of the new sequences shot for Zack Snyder's Justice League is another "Knightmare" sequence, a continuation of what we first glimpsed in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, where Ben Affleck's Batman has a vision of an alternate apocalyptic world where everyone wears duster jackets. And you can't have Batman's worst nightmares come to life without his greatest enemy, the Joker. Jared Leto reprised his role as the Clown Prince of Crime after his appearance in Suicide Squad to make his cameo in the new Knightmare sequence, sporting long hair and a curious lack of facial tattoos. The footage features Leto's Joker telling Batman, "We live in a society."
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Zack Snyder credited Leto for saying the famous (or infamous) line on set:
"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."
I'm not sure "beautiful" is the way to describe an ad-libbed line that un-ironically tries to harness a ridiculous meme. But apparently it wasn't "beautiful" enough to be included in the movie, so the joke's on us!
In the interview, Snyder also revealed that Leto and Affleck didn't actually shoot the scene together due to scheduling conflicts. So it was just Leto ad-libbing lines to the no one, which is pretty funny to think about. The Joker would be proud.
Zack Snyder's Justice League makes its debut on HBO Max today.