Suicide Squad director’s cut would be ‘incredibly cathartic’ says David Ayer

The new push for the alternate DC version comes after the long-desired 'Snyder Cut' of Justice League was given a 2021 release date

Suicide Squad director David Ayer has told fans he wants to release a director’s cut of his film.

The 2016 superhero team-up movie received mostly negative reviews from fans and critics, and many wondered what scenes had been cut from the final edit.

Last week, fans began petitioning for the “Ayer Cut” of Suicide Squad to be released. The new push for the alternate DC version comes after the long-desired “Snyder Cut” of Justice League was given a 2021 release date on HBO Max.

“My cut would be easy to complete. It would be incredibly cathartic for me. It’s exhausting getting your ass kicked for a film that got the Edward Scissorhands treatment. The film I made has never been seen,” he wrote on Twitter on Monday.

In response to another fan, the director said his cut “isn’t the apotheosis of filmmaking” but it was “simply better than what the public has seen”.

A sequel to Suicide Squad, titled The Suicide Squad, is currently in production with director James Gunn. The film is scheduled for release on 6 August, 2021, although it is unclear whether the coronavirus pandemic will affect this.

Earlier this month, Ayer defended himself against criticism over how he chose to depict Harley Quinn.

Following the announcement that he would be directing Netflix’s adaptation of Six Years, the novel by Harlan Coben, Ayer was targeted by a tweeter who accused him of overly sexualising the DC character.

“[I] wonder if David Ayer will have the women in the movie in super booty shorts and give us gratuitous a** and t** shots?” one tweeter wrote, to which Ayer replied: “Why would I do that? I know I’m a man, but I have a good soul and support and believe in feminism. It hurts to be attacked like this. I’m not your enemy.”​