David Ayer says James Gunn told him the Suicide Squad director's cut will 'have its time to be shared'

David Ayer hasn't given up hope that his Suicide Squad will get the same treatment as Zack Snyder's Justice League — namely, a director's cut.

Similar to the #ReleasetheSnyderCut campaign, some fans have asked for an "Ayer cut" of the movie that introduced Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. On Monday, Ayer said on social media that he spoke to James Gunn, who directed a Suicide Squad sequel and has now taken the helm at DC Studios, about the possibility of a new Suicide Squad release. "Gunn told me it would have [its] time to be shared," Ayer wrote. However, he did not share any further information.

Warner Bros. didn't immediately respond to EW's request for comment.

"What's your advice on how to navigate this situation with grace? There's a genuine curiosity and interest from a lot of people," Ayer wrote in a passionate response to a Twitter question about why he's still talking about his version of the 2016 supervillain film. "I'm aware there is another group of people that have fun mocking the film. Your comment is a perfect example of how many are magnetically drawn [to] discussion [of] the 2016 film in a negative way. Have you ever had an experience in life that didn't [go] the way you wanted, that dragged you, that made you rethink everything? I have."

Ayer has been open about how he feels the studio materially changed his movie into the product that underperformed at the box office and was panned by critics. "All I know is my unseen film plays much better than the studio release," he continued. "The interest in my cut being show[n] seems real and organic. And Gunn told me it would have it's time to be shared. He absolutely deserves to launch his DC universe without more drama about old projects."

Warner Bros. Pictures Margot Robbie in 'Suicide Squad'

When Warner Bros. finally released the much-discussed "Snyder cut" of Justice League, it gave Ayer hope for his version of Suicide Squad. "I think the studios see now that there can be canon, there can be non-canon, the fans just want to touch it," Ayer told EW in 2021. "They love the characters, they just want to spend more time with it. And people are way more sophisticated about how movies are made and want to be participants in the journey. There's room for different things, different versions, different assets being shared with the audience. I think it just helps strengthen the community. But absolute credit to Warner Bros. for supporting Zack and having the courage to explore that."

He continued, "It's frustrating because I made a really heartfelt drama and it got ripped to pieces and they tried to turn it into Deadpool, which it just wasn't supposed to be. And then you take the hit, you're the captain of the ship, my name was on it. [Laughs] Even though it didn't represent what I actually made, I would take all the bullets and be a good soldier. I made an amazing movie. It's an amazing movie, it just scared the s--- out of the executives."

At that time, WarnerMedia Studios CEO Ann Sarnoff told Variety, "We won't be developing David Ayer's cut."

Joel Kinnaman, who played Rick Flag in both Ayer's Suicide Squad and Gunn's The Suicide Squad, voiced support for Gunn's movie when it was released, saying that Ayer's film didn't have a clear direction due to having too many cooks in the kitchen. "There were conflicting visions of what that film was going to be, and sometimes with these big budget studio films people start pulling at it from different directions, and then it doesn't really end up anywhere," he told EW. "I feel like that's what happened with the first Suicide Squad. It kind of ended up being neither here nor there."

With Gunn and Peter Safran now steering the DC ship for Warner Bros., the thinking around an "Ayer cut" may have changed. But Ayer saying Gunn deserves to launch the new universe without any drama surrounding older films — a statement at odds with rekindling his call for an "Ayer cut" — seems to indicate that there won't be a director's cut of Suicide Squad arriving any time soon.

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