Most of the world was pretty shocked last week when it was announced that HBO Max would in fact release The Snyder Cut, the long-talked-about, hardly-seen director’s cut of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Not only would the new streaming service release the unabridged, unaltered film, they’re even giving Snyder $20-30 million to put it together. What once was internet rumor will now be an actual release.
Now that fanboys have gotten their way with The Snyder Cut, they have moved onto their next target which is…a director’s cut of David Ayer’s Suicide Squad? Oy, haven’t we been through enough lately?
Someone tweeted at AT&T, the parent company of Warner Bros, and begged them to #ReleaseTheAyerCut and their tweet was met with this response:
If AT&T had literally zero intention to produce an extended cut of Suicide Squad, they could have just said nothing. But instead they decided to tease the poor DC fan with a suggestion that maybe, sometime in the future, they may make good on Ayer’s full version of Suicide Squad.
What’s more, there was this response from AT&T which was even more of a tease:
I have no idea what “little magic” AT&T is referring to. A groundswell of demand from Suicide Squad fans? Another pandemic that puts a lot of editors and SFX supervisors out of work with spare time on their hands? A new streaming service hungry for headline-worthy content? Regardless, they’re once again suggesting that The Ayer Cut is not just a thing, but something that could possibly be released in the future.
Ayer has made his desire to release a director’s cut of Squad no secret. He has repeatedly tweeted and made statements confirming that his vision for the film was compromised and he has additional footage that was cut. Do I believe him? Sure, I am sure his cut of the film was better than what we eventually saw in theaters. But his Suicide Squad was much worse than the original Justice League, meaning a lot more work would have to be done on Suicide Squad to make it salvageable. To me, The Snyder Cut is more interesting because Justice League was close to being a good movie, you could see something worthwhile buried inside of it. Suicide Squad was not close to being a good movie. So I have very little curiosity for an Ayer cut of Squad unless it’s basically a whole new movie.
Will AT&T and HBO Max ever make good on their teases and give fans an extended Suicide Squad overseen by Ayer himself? Time (and tweets) will tell.