As DC Studios gears up to dawn a new era of superheroes movies starting with James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy, there’s been some looming unfinished business around 2016’s Suicide Squad. For years, writer/director David Ayer has teased tons of never-before-seen footage from the movie that could be seen for the first time in a director’s cut. However, Ayer’s latest update on the subject suggests the filmmaker is moving on from fighting for an extended version of the comic book movie.
On Wednesday, David Ayer took to X to announce he is no longer putting his energy into a director’s cut of Suicide Squad. When a user asked the filmmaker directly, here’s what he had to say:
Nope. Done and done. [Really] sad. You’ll be fine after a good cry. I feel healthier. It’s a wound that needs to heal.
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Ayer is singing a much different tune than just last month, when the writer/director said he was “hopeful” that the director’s cut is “coming” while also calling out Warner Bros. for its “cowardliness” regarding allowing him to put out his initial version of the movie. Over the years, David Ayer has been candid about how his original vision for the 2016 movie was not realized, sharing back in 2020 that the theatrical version saw his ideas “ripped to pieces,” particularly in regards to the “soulful drama” he had intended to make instead of the final version’s more lighthearted approach.
Over the years, David Ayer has called for support in regards to his “Ayer Cut” to get to see the light of day, especially following Zack Snyder’s four-hour cut of Justice League coming out back in 2021 after Snyder and fans fought for Warner Bros. to make it happen. Among what was left out of Suicide Squad was reportedly a lot more of Jared Leto’s Joker. Ayer previously detailed that his initial cut gave the iconic comic book character a story arc that “hangs powerfully over the entire film” rather than simply serving as “a prop,” as he suggested the theatrical version turned the character into.
As David Ayer announced the current state of the Ayer Cut of Suicide Squad, which is apparently officially dead in the water, he shared that he ultimately feels “healthier” to not hold on bringing it back to life anymore. It sounds like he feels he needs to let go of the disappointments regarding the 2016 movie in order to “heal” from the experience.
Ayer’s work is part of upcoming 2024 movies with The Beekeeper, which is an action thriller starring Jason Statham, Josh Hutcherson and Jeremy Irons about the former operative of a clandestine organization that exacts revenge against the company responsible for the death of two people close to him. You can check out David Ayer’s latest movie in theaters on January 12.
