More than eight years later Suicide Squadsome still cherish the hope of seeing the original cut. And David Ayer continues to subtly recount his dealings with DC at the time.
Anyone who loves superhero movies and has spent more than 30 seconds on Twitter knows the tragic story of Suicide Squadthe third film in the late DCEU. Director David Ayer reportedly delivered a first version deemed too dark for Warner executivesapparently cooled by the very average critical reception of Batman v Superman. The studio would therefore have undertaken on the one hand to organize heavy reshoots, on the other hand to re-edit the feature film under the filmmaker’s nose.
The transformation, clearly visible when we compare the first trailers, was quickly singled out by Internet users, but also by creatives, starting with actor Jared Leto, who plays the Joker, and Ayer. Despite the success at the box office, he regularly returned to the incident, maintaining the hope of a « Ayer Cut » in line with « Snyder Cut » of Justice Leaguewhich has indeed seen the light of day. Finally, after the release of James Gunn’s film, he gave up on releasing his version. Which doesn’t stop him from talking about it from time to time..
Suicide Squad: the one that no one saw
It was therefore once again on his favorite network Twitter (now X) that the director spoke behind the scenes at Warner during this particularly tumultuous period of its existence. Except this time, his November 29 retweet was deleted. Obviously, it was immortalized by an Internet user.
Hang in there. It all started with a first retweet from an average account, calling for Ayer to return to the saga Fast & Furious (he co-wrote the first). The person reacted with an emoji. And it was under this post that another average user asked him the following question: “Is it true that the studio’s re-editing of Suicide Squad was intended to improve the negative feedback from a test screening? ». Question he answered.
” No. Not true at all. I made a tragedy. The studio wanted a comedy. And it became madness. My edit has never been tested or shown to an audience. »
He had already stated that the first version was seen by very few people. It now appears that the general public has never had the opportunity to contemplate it. This would mean that Warner’s decision was made very quickly, some would say precipitously. And this confirms once again that managing an extended universe is not easy. To see if Gunn, who will relaunch the DC universe alongside Peter Safran including Superman in July 2025, will fare better.
Ayer, for his part, has led his boat, sometimes with difficulty, since the chaos Suicide Squad. He realized Bright, The Tax Collector and had a nice little success with the action B series The Beekeeperstarring Jason Statham. In 2025, he will also find the actor in his next feature film, Levon’s Tradeco-written by Stallone himself. Regardless of the zeal of the hashtag madmen, he seems to have moved on, and good for him.
