Suicide Squad director David Ayer seems more positive than ever that his original cut of the 2016 DC Extended Universe movie will eventually see the light of day.
Speaking with Total Film, Ayer shared that he was “going to be hopeful” regarding the odds of his Suicide Squad cut being released: “You know, there are a lot of people that are invested in certain narratives that don’t want it to see the light of day.”
He continued, “So there’s an immense political headwind against it, because if that cut were made public, the cowardliness and the whole just general shittiness of how the film’s been treated, and how the actors have had this great work that they’d done taken away … That narrative blows up once people see the movie. But it’s coming. Something’s going to happen. Something’s going to be revealed. The truth always comes out. It always comes out.”
Will DC #ReleaseTheAyerCut?
The online movement #ReleaseTheAyerCut, inspired by the DC fandom’s successful #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign for Zack Snyder’s director’s cut of 2017’s Justice League, first began after multiple sources reported that the 2016 movie had been heavily edited in post-production. Among the changes made were the removal of several scenes, including most of Jared Leto’s Joker performance, and the addition of several pop songs in place of the original score.
Ayer has been extremely vocal about want to see his original vision released. The director has repeatedly taken to Twitter since the movie’s release to share concept art, behind-the-scenes images, and story details from his version of Suicide Squad.
At the time of writing, Warner Bros. and DC Studios have made no indication that they will release Ayer’s Suicide Squad cut. However, in August 2023, Ayer tweeted that James Gunn, who oversees DC Studios alongside Peter Safran, had told him that his original cut “would have its time to be shared” after the launch of the new DC shared universe.
DC fans can stream the theatrical cut of Suicide Squad on Max and Netflix.