DC fans may have won a massive battle by finally convincing Warner Bros. to get the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League made, but that doesn’t mean that they’re done. All that victory seems to have done is fuel fan requests even more, resulting in a push to see more director cuts of films that were considered to be a critical disappointment due to studio meddling. And that next obvious choice is David Ayer’s Suicide Squad.
The film ended up being incredibly messy when it was finally released, thanks to attempts by Warner Bros. to re-edit Suicide Squad from a gritty film to a more fun and light-hearted movie in the same vein as Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Despite that, easily one of the most controversial parts of the movie was Jared Leto’s bizarre take on the Joker. Or should I say the lack of it, as what was teased to be a big part of Suicide Squad ended up largely on the cutting room floor. Something which David Ayer believes was rather unfair and that people would’ve understood Leto’s take on the Joker if they got to see more of the character and what was planned for him
Ayer has previously seemed uninterested in trying to get his original vision for the film released, though perhaps his intentions are changing as he recently shared a new photo of Leto as the Joker on his Instagram story, as well as a script page from Suicide Squad. In the scene, the titular squad confronts main villain Enchantress (Cara Delevigne), only to run into a major obstacle in the form of the Joker armed with the triggers for the explosives buried in their necks. A scene that he reveals was all shot, but sadly didn’t make it to the final studio cut
Ayer previously shared how his original version of Suicide Squad featured a Joker/Enchantress alliance, and that would have affected his relationship with Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie). Something which could have been a build-up to the recent Birds of Prey movie starring Robbie’s Quinn. The scene doesn’t reveal too much about the character and so you can’t really gauge from this if our opinions on Leto’s Joker would’ve changed at all.
It does all sound like it might have made for at least a more consistent movie with what we expect from the characters, and it would be nice to see exactly how Ayer’s story would’ve panned out if we got to see it. Something which we probably will get to see in the next few years as fans keep pushing the studio to hashtag Release The Ayer Cut.
Last Updated: July 21, 2020
Jac7
July 21, 2020 at 11:53
I would actually love to see the director’s cut. I could tell while I watched the movie that something were “gespoeg and geplak” together. It’s insulting when studio heads don’t have faith in the people they put into that position to see the task through. I like how streaming services are actually changing the playing field a bit. We never would have seen the Snyder Cut without.