Here's your first look at Jared Leto as the Joker

The new Joker is ready for his close-up. On Thursday, Suicide Squad director David Ayer shared the first picture of Jared Leto, who will appear in the film as Batman's archnemesis, The Joker:

As many fans have noted, the picture is a direct callback to the cover of Alan Moore's The Killing Joke, which is roundly regarded as one of the most memorable and influential Joker stories in comic book history:

Suicide Squad — which follows a group of incarcerated supervillains who are offered a commuted sentence if they complete high risk government missions — also stars Will Smith as Deadshot, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flagg, and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. It hits theaters in 2016.

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