Jared Leto plays an American soldier who joins the Japanese Yakuza in Netflix’s trailer for The Outsider. The Netflix movie also stars Tadanobu Asano (Thor: Ragnarok), Rory Cochrane (Argo), Shiori Kutsuna (My Back Pages), and Emile Hirsch (Speed Racer). Martin Zandvliet, director of the Oscar-nominated Land of Mine, directed from a script by Andrew Baldwin (The Take).
Set in post-war Japan, The Outsider stars Leto as Nick Lowell, an imprisoned American soldier set free with the help of his Yakuza cellmate. Now Nick must pay back his Yakuza saviors by joining their dark underworld and adopting their code. At an early point, The Outsider was set up with Michael Fassbender to star and Daniel Espinosa (Life) to direct. Later, legendary Japanese director Takashi Miike became attached to the project with Tom Hardy reportedly ready to star. The film finally shot in 2016 with Leto in the lead, with Netflix picking up distribution.
Netflix UK & Ireland has now debuted a trailer for The Outsider ahead of its release. In the clip, a clean-cut Jared Leto discovers the mysterious criminal world of the Yakuza. Though Leto looks less crazy than he did in Suicide Squad, the trailer shows that he indeed gets to unleash some Joker-like violence in the new film. See the trailer above.
As the obligatory sad pop song plays, the trailer introduces us to Leto’s character and sets up its Japanese setting. The trailer is pretty routine and not particularly exciting at first; though later on, we do get a scene of Leto beating Rory Cochrane’s face in with a typewriter. There’s also a quick shot of Leto stabbing a man viciously in the neck, followed by one of him taking out two men John Wick-style. Mostly this looks like heavy drama with some thriller elements. We’ll see how the movie takes advantage of its post-war Japanese setting. Post-war Japan hasn’t been explored much in movies outside the work of Sam Fuller, a man obsessed with everything Japanese.
Leto himself has of course become known for the extreme steps he’s willing to take in order to transform for roles. For instance, on Blade Runner 2049, Leto used blinding contacts in order to more accurately portray his sightless character. For Dallas Buyers Club, his Oscar-winning role, Leto lost weight to portray an AIDS victim. Before that, Leto gained several pounds to play John Lennon murderer Mark David Chapman in Chapter 27. In The Outsider, Leto looks skinny and pale, and has a bad haircut that makes him look like Jim Carrey. His appearance certainly is not as outrageous as we’ve seen in other films, which may come as a disappointment to some.
More: 15 WTF Ways Jared Leto Prepared To Play The Joker
Netflix releases The Outsider on Friday, March 9.
Source: Netflix UK & Ireland
