One-time Academy Award and two-time Razzie winner Jared Leto has gathered an unfortunate reputation for ensuring that virtually every big budget blockbuster he touches will fail on at least one front, a habit that’s alarmingly dated back decades.
Oliver Stone’s Alexander became one of the biggest bombs in box office history, Suicide Squad instantly etched its place in superhero cinema’s halls of infamy, Blade Runner 2049 tanked in spite of widespread acclaim, and Morbius bombing twice over speaks for itself.
The actor continued his unwanted hot streak this summer when he voiced the Hatbox Ghost in Haunted Mansion, but as director Justin Simien admitted to ScreenRant, he didn’t have say in Leto’s casting at all, even if he admitted he was “quite pleased” with how it turned out.
“It was mostly voiceover work for that role. Some of that was kind of like Disney is a massive place, and you never quite know for sure where what you’re doing fits into their franchise plans and the puzzle that they’re building. But, with Jared, it was like, “It will be Jared Leto.” And I was quite pleased that he was so comfortable being collaborative, letting us sort of figure out some of the physicality while he really worked on this. Sometimes, you inherit a casting choice at a big studio, and it doesn’t work out, but I thought Jared was great, I thought he was just great to work with.”
Having applied the opposite of a Midas Touch to a worrying number of expensive productions, the creative team behind Tron: Ares should be getting pretty worried about its chances of success, because the Leto effect is always lurking in the shadows waiting to strike.