Suicide Squad Director Reveals Why The Studio Wanted To Kill Diablo

Everybody knows by now that David Ayer’s Suicide Squad did not reflect the project that the filmmaker had originally agreed to direct, with the studio heavily involving themselves in the production after being concerned by the tone of the movie due to the fact that the similarly somber Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice had failed to hit the billion dollar mark that was widely expected, as well as being torn apart by critics.

You can tell just from watching Suicide Squad that the story was heavily altered in post-production, and Ayer hasn’t been shy in admitting that things were taken out of his hands in the editing room, blasting the studio for trying to retroactively turn it into a comedy in an effort to capitalize on the success of Deadpool.

Following the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign that eventually saw Warner Bros. give the green light to an all-new version of Justice League, the movement for Suicide Squad to get the same treatment started to gather some serious momentum, although that seems to have tapered off a bit following the massively enthusiastic reception to the first footage from James Gunn’s soft reboot.

Still, the End of Watch and Fury director has made it clear that he’d love to go back and revisit the troubled comic book adaptation, and in a recent exchange with a fan, he revealed that studio pressure forced him to kill off one of the members of the titular team.

No he lived. https://t.co/O82vIojbTT

— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) September 8, 2020

The argument was because he killed his family he had to die. It was either that or the backstory of his family would have been cut. Sometimes it’s just triage to protect against a worse outcome. https://t.co/3S5sx3Z7Ix

— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) September 8, 2020

As you can see, instead of getting some sort of a redemption arc in the end, Ayer either had to kill Diablo or completely cut his backstory, in the sort of creative compromise that characterized Suicide Squad and ultimately resulted in a movie with huge potential turning out to be a major disappointment.