Suicide Squad's mythic "Ayer cut" could see release once DC gets "some scores on the board"

Ahead of A Working Man, David Ayer drops more information about his long-teased director's cut of Suicide Squad.

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  March 25, 2025 | 7:45pm
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David Ayer’s cut of Suicide Squad is still on the table despite the seemingly infinite crises of the DC Cinematic Universe. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Ayer said that while there hasn’t been much chatter about getting his Squad back together, it’s only a matter of setting up this new DCU before they can go rooting around in the past. “When I did speak with James [Gunn], he wanted to [first] get some scores on the board,” Ayer said. “DC has its history and its legacy, and it’s taking some work to reestablish that IP and get it moving in the direction they want.” The director believes that now that we’re somehow a decade removed from Jared Leto’s damaged Joker, some will look at the director’s cut as “a more nostalgic thing.” However, he maintains that “for the sake of everybody that worked on [Suicide Squad] it really does deserve to be seen.”

Now that Ayer’s career rebounded after the Oscar-winning, $745 million-grossing Suicide Squad, he appears slightly less defensive about the film, saying he’s “incredibly proud of the work” but understands why Gunn isn’t rushing to re-release one of the less well-liked entries in the Snyderverse. “It’s not my IP, and it’s not my studio. So I absolutely understand what James is doing, and I think he’s going to have some real successes with the lanes he’s going down.” It stands to reason if people don’t buy tickets to Superman, we may never get Suicide Squad’s director’s cut.

The most fascinating thing about his recent comments is that his version of the movie was never tested for audiences. “A lot of the major elements got vetoed early on,” Ayer said. “The bake-off was then my version of their cut and their version of their cut. My version mostly won, but it still was not the movie I made at all.” Whatever was in Ayer’s original cut, it was no match for a bunch of ham-fisted needle drops.

 
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