Fan Theory: The Joker Being Jason Todd

Normally we would ignore a fan theory like this one, but when it ends up on all of our social media feeds, with fans believing there’s truth to it, which has led to an all out debate between the yay sayers and the nay sayers because of it, we felt we would address the theory and why it’s not a very good one.

The birth of this theory all started after the latest trailer to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which strongly implied the death of Robin by the hands of The Joker, as we see in the trailer there’s a Robin suit in the batcave with– “HAHAHA, Jokes on you Batman” sprayed painted on it.

Which of the Robins does the suit belongs to isn’t known. Though prior to the latest trailer it was said to be Dick Grayson, to be the Robin that’s dead, due to an on-set photo of a tombstone with “Richard Grayson” on it.

But now fans speculate, it was just a name placement for a tombstone for the graveyard, an easter egg as they say, for the scene we see in the trailer of the Wayne’s funeral. Of course this might still be true, that Dick Grayson is in fact dead in DC Extended Universe and that’s his suit Bruce is seen looking at in the trailer.

But lets regress and go back to the idea that Dick Grayson isn’t the one that’s dead and move on to the next logical option, which is going with the Robin who actually died in the comics by the hands of the Joker and the one this theory is focusing on, which is Jason Todd.

Back in 1988 DC Comics held a telephone poll giving the readers the choice whether Jason Todd, who was Robin at the time, should die at the hands of the Joker for the Batman: A Death in the Family storyline. Due to how unpopular the character was during his run, the readers choose for the Joker to kill him off.

Fast forward to 2005 when the Under the Red Hood storyline happened, in which Jason Todd returns from the dead as the Red Hood, since that transformation Jason has since become a fan favorite.

Now that Jason Todd is being speculation on as the Robin that dies in the DC Extended Universe, some fans have focused on to something that recently took place in the video game Batman Arkham Knight, which was Jason Todd appearing with a ‘J’ scar on his left cheek, somewhat like Suicide Squad Joker’s ‘J’ tattoo on his left cheek. This is basically where the theory sky rocketed off on.

But is that enough evidence to back up this theory, a video game that came out a month ago?

For us it really isn’t, because it’s hard to believe Suicide Squad director David Ayer was exchanging notes with the design developers for Batman: Arkham Knight regarding the design of Leto’s Joker to that of Jason Todd’s appear in Batman: Arkham Knight, as that’s the only time Jason Todd has ever had a ‘J’ on his face.

If that’s what this theory is being based on mainly, right there it falls apart.

We’re aware that The Joker has in the past appeared as the persona of Red Hood, like in Batman: The Killing Joke, but at no point were they one in the same in the comics. It’s as far from the source material as they would have to get for this theory to work.

Of course film adaptations can be there own animal when it comes to origin stories. Though the idea that DC Extended Universe would take two characters, both which are fan favorites and infuse them into one, is only going to confuse the general audience, that are fully aware of The Joker and then piss off another set of people who like The Joker and Jason Todd/Red Hood as their own entities.

As a storytelling standpoint, what would be gained with changing two character’s origin stories so dramatically? People prefer Joker not having a back story and without the Red Hood origin for Jason Todd, people wanted him dead. There’s no win, win to implement this plot twist in the DC Extended Universe.

Of course people say what if Jared Leto’s Joker as Jason Todd isn’t the real Joker and the real Joker is still out there, in other words the only one who gets his back story completely turned on its head is Jason Todd’s.

But this theory seems to be more rooted on people not wanting Jared Leto’s Joker to be the real one,  so they’re running with this theory, in other words to make themselves feel better about what we’re getting from the DC Extended Universe.

We’ll be honest and say we aren’t too keen with how Leto’s Joker looks either, but running on fan theories as strong as some have with this one to the point of feeling they’ll be disappointed if it doesn’t end up being true is just setting oneself up for disappointment. More so when there’s no real evidence to it, Leto’s Joker having a Robin tattoo on his arm just proves that The Joker is a jerk who would take pride in killing Jason Todd, not that Jason Todd himself would give himself a tattoo of something he once was… Of course one can also say it was the real Joker that put that tattoo on Jason, but still it comes off as a desperate attempt to discredit Leto’s Joker.

Another thing to note is that Jared Leto is actually older than Ben Affleck, Jason Todd is supposed to be younger than Batman and we understand that Leto looks good for his age, but he still doesn’t look young enough even with all the hair and makeup as the Joker, to pass off as someone who’s suppose to be more than 10 years younger than Batman. As we’ve been made aware that’s part of the theory–The Joker in Suicide Squad looks more youthful than Bruce Wayne from what we’ve seen in Batman v Superman, hence why it’s possible he’s Jason Todd.

But people who seem to think this don’t realize The Joker from the Suicide Squad trailer is from a flashback. As we see him with Harley Quinn as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, meaning in present timeline he’s in fact older, as Harley has to had done her time as Harley Quinn to be consider “The worse of the worse” before ending up in the hands of Amanda Waller, couldn’t have been an overnight transformation.

Anyway, we’ll end this article by stating the following– Warner Bros. would be beyond crazy to hire an Oscar-winning actor, as talented as Jared Leto to play a throw away fake Joker in the DC Extended Universe.