Member-only story
Why Jared Leto?
Why keep casting him in leading roles? Who is making these decisions?
In May of 2018, writer/director James Gunn appeared to publicly accuse Jared Leto of being a pedophile. He was replying to a tweet from former Disney Channel star Dylan Sprouse which read “Yo @JaredLeto now that you’ve slid into the dm’s of every female model aged 18–25, what would you say your success rate is?” to which Gunn responded “He starts at 18 on the internet?”
A few months later, Disney fired Gunn from directing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 following the resurfacing of old tweets which featured unsavory jokes about many topics including pedophilia. Because of the nature of the circumstances that let to his dismissal from the Marvel film, many people assumed that Gunn’s comments about Leto were simply another edgy joke and not a serious accusation of misconduct.
Gunn was eventually re-hired by Disney only 8 months later, but in his exile he had signed a deal with competitor Warner Bros. to write and direct The Suicide Squad, a quasi-sequel to the 2016 David Ayer-directed DC comics adaptation which received dismal reviews but grossed $750 million worldwide. Given that Jared Leto had given a much-maligned performance as the Joker in the 2016 film, the promotional cycle for Gunn’s 2021 follow-up gave him an excellent opportunity to publicly…
