Fans petition to release David Ayer’s cut of ‘Suicide Squad’ after director says original film was ‘shockingly different’

Director David Ayer is claiming releasing the director’s cut of his 2016 DC film Suicide Squad wouldn’t require any reshoots, only some re-done visual effects shots, but that the end result would be “shockingly different” from the theatrical cut we got, spurring fans once again to advocate Warner Bros. to “#ReleaseTheAyerCut.”

After a fan asked Ayer if he was given a proper budget to do additional reshoots for the film, and possibly change character designs back to his original concept like what they did for the character Steppenwolf in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Ayer responded via Twitter, “No need for reshoots. Just some VFX work.”

Earlier Friday, Ayer said his version of the film was like “apples and oranges” compared to the theatrical cut.

“Shockingly different,” he said.

Soon after that, #ReleaseTheAyerCut began trending once again on the social media platform, reigniting the effort to restore the director’s original vision for the film.

Back in October 2020, Ayer claimed WB slashed the opening 40 minutes of the film from his version before it was released to theaters in 2016, to disastrous fan and critical haranguing. Although the movie was a box office success, many fans felt bamboozled by what seemed like a fascinating origin story for Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and Jared Leto’s Joker tragically cut short of its potential and stuffed inside a bloated and clichéd superhero movie.

One fan argued releasing the cut, in the same vein as Zack Snyder’s Justice League, would be an easy win for WB, and likely boost HBO Max subscriptions.

Indeed, many supporters of restoring the so-called “SnyderVerse” also advocate for the release of Ayer’s version of Suicide Squad.

In fact, Ayer even said he worked with Snyder to make Suicide Squad dovetail within the large DC Extended Universe at the time.

That included Snyder’s team shooting a scene with Ezra Miller’s The Flash, who cameos in Suicide Squad, at one point.

After last year’s excellent Zack Snyder’s Justice League, we’re curious if Ayer’s cut might actually fare better than the original version after all. Before the unexpected success of that film — resonating well with audiences and critics alike — we weren’t totally convinced Ayer’s claims that he had a better version of the movie on the cutting room floor were accurate. But it seems like anything is possible in a post-Snyder Cut world.