When Warner Bros. released a first look at Jared Leto's Joker in Suicide Squad, the response was...well, overwhelmingly negative. That didn't really change after the movie was released in theaters, but despite the fact that this Clown Prince of Crime boasted a completely different appearance to what many fans expected, director David Ayer believes he did, in fact, adhere to the comics.
As you can see below, the filmmaker shared a Tweet containing side-by-side comparisons of the movie and comic book versions of The Joker. There's artwork from The Dark Knight Returns, Batman R.I.P., and Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Batman run, all of which clearly inspired Suicide Squad.
That doesn't explain the tattoos, of course, but they were simply meant to deliver a fresh take on the villain, and looking past the body art, it's clear that Ayer did turn to the source material for inspiration.
Comments like this are only serving to further build support for the movement, but it's still hard to say whether the "Ayer Cut" will ever see the light of day. After all, there are plenty of disgruntled filmmakers out there, and studios can't start releasing every "original" version of a movie in response to online campaigns (even if that did work with Zack Snyder's Justice League).
Check out Ayer's Tweet below: