Suicide Squad was released in August 2016, just a few months after Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice had arrived in theaters. Zack Snyder's movie had a huge opening weekend (despite negative reviews), but a shocking second-weekend drop sent Warner Bros. into panic mode.
As a result, Suicide Squad received a drastic overhaul with the addition of colourful graphics, catchy pop songs, and a "happy ending" in place of the original, much darker, abusive dynamic between The Joker and Harley Quinn.
While the #ReleaseTheAyerCut movement has never been quite as popular as #ReleaseTheSnyderCut - which ultimately led to Zack Snyder's Justice League dropping on HBO Max - a great many fans are desperate to see David Ayer's original version of Suicide Squad.
Despite Ayer's hints that DC Studios and James Gunn might consider sharing his version of Suicide Squad with the world have come to nothing and, for the most part, it feels like fans want to move on from this particular era of the DCEU.
The filmmaker, who we're sure once vowed to stop talking about the movie, has now shared more insights into what happened. As you can see below, he claims that Warner Bros. never even screened his cut to test audiences before deciding to completely overhaul it.
It's easy enough to see why Ayer is frustrated and it's always a shame when a filmmaker is, for lack of a better term, "f***ed over" by studio bosses. However, we'd argue that a greater tragedy is what became of Batgirl (which was scrapped during post-production) because at least a version of Suicide Squad got to see the light of day.
In August, we sat down with Scott Eastwood to discuss his role in 1992 alongside Tyrese Gibson. The actor played Lieutenant GQ Edwards in the DCEU movie and is believed to have had a much larger role in Suicide Squad's "Ayer Cut."
"I would. It's all, sort of, script-driven and director-driven," the actor replied when we asked if he'd be open to another superhero movie role. "Look, I have a relationship with David Ayer; I shot Fury with him years prior to doing that and that was one of those things where I knew he was a visionary. He's a real artist."
"When he said, 'Hey, come and do this thing with me,' I said, 'No questions asked. Whatever you want, let's go.' I didn't even really read the script, so I want to see his cut too, to be honest," Eastwood added. "We can push for that, right? Let's push for the David Ayer Cut."
Do you think DC Studios should #ReleaseTheAyerCut of Suicide Squad or is time for everyone to just move on?