A couple of days ago, director Zack Snyder confirmed that the ‘Snyder Cut’ of Justice League will actually be dropping on HBO Max. It’s a film that a pocket of vocal DCEU fans have been clamouring for since the theatrical version of Justice League (with extensive rewrites and reshoots done by Joss Whedon) graced our screens in 2017.
Now that the Justice League Snyder Cut has been confirmed by the director and the studio, fans have instead turned their heads to David Ayer and his 2016 mess of a film, Suicide Squad. Anchored by a brilliant cast, Ayer’s film was otherwise choppy, shoddily edited and incohesive. But that might not have been David Ayer’s doing. For years now there have been plenty of rumours and reports of what went down during the production of Suicide Squad, including the fact that the film wasn’t edited by Ayer and John Gilroy, rather by a company that makes music videos and trailers. Which would certainly explain why the film plays out like a 90s music video.
Anyway, over the years David Ayer has never been shy of divulging details about the film. Recently, a fan asked him on Twitter about the death of the character played by Common. After all, Common’s scene in the movie is quick and the details are hazy. Ayer took the opportunity to elaborate on how the scene was originally supposed to play out. “It’s a long scene and Joker intimidated him into killing himself.” Ayer also said that the scene was already filmed, implying that someone made the executive decision to leave it on the chopping room floor.
Just like this, Ayer has, over the years, talked about multiple scenes and characters that were undercut by the theatrical version of Suicide Squad. Even the extended version that Warner Bros released months after Suicide Squad hit the big screens didn’t add much beyond a couple of short scenes with Jared Leto’s Joker.
But is there a better cut of Suicide Squad out there, one where the director’s vision is untainted by meddling studio executives? Ayer seems to suggest so. After the Justice League Snyder Cut was announced, Ayer went on twitter to post a message in support of Zack Snyder but also say he was ready for a similar event to take place with his movie. One fan even Tweeted at AT&T (the company that owns WarnerMedia) and asked them to release the Ayer Cut. AT&T replied, “one thing at a time.”
