The director of 2016's Suicide Squad has spoken up again about wanting Warner Bros. to release a special version of his film, a la The Snyder Cut for Justice League, to help him showcase his true vision for the superhero movie. Warner Bros. has said there will be no David Ayer cut of the movie, but the man himself has spoken again about why he believes in his original vision for the film.
"I think the studios see now that there can be canon, there can be non-canon, the fans just want to touch it," Ayer told Entertainment Weekly. "They love the characters, they just want to spend more time with it. And people are way more sophisticated about how movies are made and want to be participants in the journey. There's room for different things, different versions, different assets being shared with the audience. I think it just helps strengthen the community. But absolute credit to Warner Bros. for supporting Zack and having the courage to explore that."
Ayer acknowledged that Warner Bros. chopped up his version of Suicide Squad for business reasons, but he remains frustrated over how it all turned out.
"It's frustrating because I made a really heartfelt drama and it got ripped to pieces and they tried to turn it into Deadpool, which it just wasn't supposed to be," he said. "And then you take the hit, you're the captain of the ship, my name was on it. [Laughs] Even though it didn't represent what I actually made, I would take all the bullets and be a good soldier. I made an amazing movie. It's an amazing movie, it just scared the sh** out of the executives."
Suicide Squad was a commercial success with more than $746 million globally, putting it ahead of the MCU movie Doctor Strange and Disney's Moana that year and finishing 2016 as the 10th biggest film of the year. The film also won an Academy Award for makeup and hairstyling. However, the movie flopped with critics.
In 2017, Ayer responded to the controversy around Suicide Squad and admitted that, if he had a time machine, he would re-write the story so Joker was the main villain.
pic.twitter.com/scIdV9PYSP
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) January 21, 2017
Warner Bros. made a sequel of sorts with The Suicide Squad from director James Gunn. The movie just recently got its first trailer, and it looks to be an action-packed, funny ride. Warner Bros. has plans to expand the universe further with a spinoff show for John Cena's Peacemaker.
The Suicide Squad opens in theaters and on HBO Max on August 6.