Zack Snyder’s Justice League launched to rapturous applause from DC fans last week with praise heaped on its story, coherence and tantalising glimpses at the future of the DC movie universe. It was a film born from the demands of fans, with the trending hashtag #RestoreTheSnyderCut ultimately leading to Warner Bros. green-lighting a recut version of the film. But despite further requests from fans to give the same treatment to Suicide Squad, which was widely panned on its release, Warner Bros. has now definitively confirmed there won’t be an ‘Ayer Cut’ version of the film.
Suicide Squad introduced fans to Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and also gave us the first appearance of Jared Leto’s Joker. But despite how well-received these performances eventually became, reception to the film was poor thanks to an incoherent plot and strange editing choices.
Reports behind the scenes indicate rushed production, studio meddling and anxiety about Batman v Superman‘s relative flop contributed to a messier cut of the film than was originally intended. This is also backed by David Ayer himself.
It’s a familiar story, and one shared with the original cut of Justice League, which was met with extremely poor reviews.
To fix the issues with the film, Warner Bros. pumped an extra $US70 million ($90 million) into edits and reshooting that brought it in line with Zack Snyder’s initial vision for the film. Given the care paid to Justice League, DC fans felt it was only right to give the same treatment to Suicide Squad.
A new fan campaign was recently launched on Twitter with the hashtag #ReleaseTheAyerCut, encouraging Warner Bros. to allow a new cut of the film with original director at the helm. Following the bad reception of Suicide Squad Ayer was vocal about how the inference of the studio changed his film. He also indicated major elements of the film were ‘ripped out’ before he could mature the edit.
For sure that became a factor – but the reason was BVS got chewed up by the critics, and the success of Deadpool – the studio leadership at the time panicked. Then major elements of my cut were ripped out before I could mature the edit. Then Johns wrote pages I had to reshoot ???? https://t.co/MNmiXoH1Cc
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) October 31, 2020
But despite recent fan outcry and the #ReleaseTheAyerCut hashtag gaining traction in the wake of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Warner Bros. is holding firm on the decision not to undertake costly re-edits of the film. In an interview with Variety, Ann Sarnoff, CEO of WarnerMedia Studios stated firmly, “We won’t be developing David Ayer’s cut.”
As it stands, the original Suicide Squad will remain as it was released: a bit fun, but incredibly flawed.
Given the next major release from DC and Warner Bros., The Suicide Squad, is a semi-reboot of the franchise, the decision is a sound one. It could be that regardless of any proposed ‘Ayer Cut’, the team still gets the justice it deserves with the James Gunn-led sequel. This won’t be the end for everybody’s favourite rogues gallery of villains.
The Suicide Squad launches on August 5, 2021. Zack Snyder’s Justice League is currently streaming on Binge in Australia.