Modern comic book fans have grown up. Kids who watched Batman: The Animated Series, or went to see Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies in theaters, want something to match that increased maturity. For some fans, that means seeing iconic Marvel and DC heroes veer headfirst into R-rated territory. With that in mind, plenty of audiences remain insistent on seeing an R-rated cut of Suicide Squad, but director David Ayer has seemingly shot that idea down.
David Ayer spoke to Empire recently and firmly declared that he never really intended to make Suicide Squad an R-rated movie in the first place. The film already pushes the envelope of its PG-13 label, and adding some extra swearing, as well as some other thematic elements would not enhance the overall story. He explained:
You could easily make this R-rated by having two F-bombs or someone smoke a cigarette. But that's not what I think people mean when they ask for an R-rated version, so it was always meant to be a PG-13. It's a decision you make before you turn the cameras on.
Suicide Squad's cast and crew built the film from the ground up with a PG-13 rating in mind, and as such they developed a world that does not inherently need a gratuitous R-rating.
Regardless of this explanation, many fans still clamor for an R-rated cut of Suicide Squad -- either in theaters on Blu-Ray. The trailers for the film make it abundantly clear that a ton of scenes ended up not making it into the final cut of the movie, and even Jared Leto has stated that he wanted to see an R-rated version of the film featuring more of his Joker scenes. If it happened with Batman V Superman's Ultimate Edition, clearly it can happen here, right? It's a question many fans have asked.
However, we feel inclined to agree with David Ayer's stance on this particular matter. Sure, the Ultimate Edition of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice proved itself as a major improvement over the theatrical cut, but it wasn't the more intense violence (or the addition of a Bruce Wayne butt) that really made it better; it was just the more cohesive story. David Ayer's original vision for Suicide Squad was apparently realized in the theatrical cut, and as such we don't necessarily need to go back and add more content for the sake of an R-rating. Do we want to see the scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor? Of course. Do we need them to go passed a PG-13 rating? Most certainly not.
We live in an era where fans tend to get what they want. David Ayer has no plans for an R-rated cut of Suicide Squad, but things could obviously change at some point. We will keep you up to date as more details become available; make sure to check out Suicide Squad in theaters now.
