Seven years on, and we’re still not over the complete misfire that Suicide Squad turned out to be. All the angry YouTube videos in the world couldn’t quite believe the questionable legacy that it would go on to have, and even its director, David Ayer, is still not ready to let the whole thing go.
When the Suicide Squad joined the DCU, it was immediately clear that it wasn’t going to become one of the best superhero movies in its collective. And although we had a much more successful new movie in 2021, David Ayer still wants to make it clear that things could have been better from the start had certain elements not changed in post-production.
“Joker is formidable, intense, and a force of nature in my cut,” he recently wrote on X (formally known as Twitter). “Not unfocused and silly. In my cut he has a story arc that hangs powerfully over the entire film. In the studio cut he’s a prop not a character.”
Ayer has been rallying for an alternate version to be released since day one, à la Zack Snyder. The director behind one of the most controversial DC character team-ups ever alleges that his version (the correct version), is a totally different portrayal of the infamous DC villain team.
“Something’s going to happen. Something’s going to be revealed. The truth always comes out. It always comes out,” he told Total Film earlier this month.
He’s also said that James Gunn, the new DC head, is behind an Ayer cut, though it’s difficult to imagine where this could fit in among the upcoming DC movies as part of the Gods and Monsters slate. In the interest of restarting the studio and building DC’s reputation from scratch, is it worth revisiting old failures?
Suicide Squad is, admittedly, a strange beast. When it was released, it became the tenth-highest-grossing movie of 2016, though it ended up being torn apart critically. Years later, it’s having a resurgence on Netflix. Although it’s not one of the best-rated DC outings, it’s definitely one of the most-talked about.
So the question stands: would we watch an Ayer cut? Well, probably. Out of morbid curiosity more than anything else. History tells us that director cuts can make a notable difference, as seen with Zack Snyder’s Justice League. What’s more, we’re really dying to know if Jared Leto is actually higher up on the list of Joker actors than we originally thought.
That said, if a movie has bad bones, it’s a tricky job to turn it into something incredibly successful. And while an Ayer cut could potentially right some wrongs, it won’t be able to rewrite its own history.
For more DC, check out our guide to Harley Quinn. You can also keep tabs on the Superman Legacy release date. Oh, and don’t forget to check out our list of the best movies of all time — plenty of gems to be found there!