Jared Leto ad-libbed the ‘We live in a society’ line on set

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is everything fans who have been asking for the Snyder Cut for the last few years could’ve hoped for. It has a much darker tone than the 2017 version, culminating in Superman donning his iconic Black Suit.

We actually get a chance to see Darkseid (Ray Porter) as opposed to merely hearing Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) mention him, and best of all, we get a better look at the Knightmare reality that was first introduced in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

With several references featuring Batman (Ben Affleck) wandering around a post-apocalyptic Earth with an evil Superman flying around, it’s clear Snyder had big plans for the future of the franchise that would’ve seen these scenes paid off in a big way.

Maybe in an alternate reality, we’d be watching Justice League 2 now instead of the Snyder Cut, but on this Earth, the chances of a sequel, especially one directed by Snyder, are looking slim to none with each passing day. The director’s discussed some of the Justice League sequel plot points audiences could’ve expected with his follow-ups, such as Darkseid attaining the Anti-Life Equation, but as a whole, the future of these films is left to viewers’ imagination.

At least Snyder tried to leave his vision on an epic note, actually going so far as to film an additional scene for his cut that showcased another Knightmare sequence in which Batman has a philosophical conversation with the Joker (Jared Leto) about the destruction they caused before the timeline was ruined by Darkseid.

We may not get a chance to see the two comic book titans fight or potentially even work together, but Leto left his mark on his version of the character with one noteworthy line that broke the internet when the Justice League trailer came out.

Jared Leto ad-libbed the ‘We live in a society’ line on set

The whole idea behind the Snyder Cut is that it’s something brought to fruition for the fans. They’ve been asking to see a movie closer to Snyder’s original vision for years, and now that it’s actually available on HBO Max, it only makes sense for the film to give those fans a little something extra.

As if seeing Jared Leto’s Joker one more time to actually have a conversation with Batman wasn’t enough, there’s some bonus fan service when the character says, “We live in a society” during the trailer for Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

For those of you who don’t go on social media all that often, the phrase “We live in a society” became a meme that gained prevalence around the time of 2019’s Joker. The origin of the phrase can be traced back all the way to Seinfeld where George exclaimed, “You know, we’re living in a society” (via Happy Mag).

But over the years, it’s been associated with the Joker both in earnest and satirical manners to talk about perceived slights in the larger culture that are enough to radicalize people into becoming Joker-esque. In an effort as it would seem to tap into the zeitgeist, and considering Snyder filmed Justice League’s Knightmare scene in 2020 (via Collider), it was easy enough for Leto to slip it in.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Snyder mentions how he wrote a script for the scene after getting some ideas for what he wanted out of these versions of Batman and the Joker, but the director does reveal, “We went back and forth with it. And I’ll give Jared [Leto] credit for that little ad-lib there.”

The hype was already through the roof for the Snyder Cut, but that line in the trailer just confirmed that this movie was for all of the comic book fans almost as a way to reward them for being so vocal online.

But some were still displeased.

Fans are bummed the line didn’t make it into the final film

While the line is fun for fans, it doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense in context. These characters are living in a post-apocalyptic hell-scape ruled over by one of DC’s New Gods. What “society” is there to be found with political and bureaucratic functions? As it turns out, anyone who watched the full four hours of the movie hoping to hear the meme was sadly disappointed when the Joker didn’t actually say it.

As with every minor inconvenience in life, people took to Twitter to voice their displeasure at being duped.

Just take @Discourse_Stu who writes, “I’m shocked… SHOCKED… that joker doesn’t actually say ‘we live in a society’ in justice league.” The deception has even turned into a meme in its own right with @ZoneArchives stating, “I haven’t watched Justice League but Snyder having Joker say ‘we live in a society’ in the trailer and then making people sit through a 4 hour movie only to [realize] Joker never actually says it was pure genius.” To all of this, we suppose you could say, “We live in a society in which trailers tell you one thing, but the movie gives you another.”

Even without the line in the movie, there was still plenty for fans to satisfy their appetites for superhero action, and while this is likely the last time we’ll get to see Jared Leto with green hair and white makeup — or, at least doing so as that DCEU character — he at least gave us one final scene to close out his run as the Joker.