Suicide Squad Director’s Cut Hopes Die as David Ayer Himself Is ‘Done With DC’

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Suicide Squad 2016 director David Ayer is officially giving up his campaign to have his director’s cut, dubbed the Ayer Cut by fans, released by DC.

As reported by ComicBook, Ayer said in a series of posts on X/Twitter, some of which are now deleted, that he’s “done with DC”, while also telling fans he was no longer going to fight for his version of the film to be released. Cries for the Ayer Cut began after the extended Snyder Cut version of Justice League was released in 2021, which saw a four hour version of the original, widely panned film released again.

This updated Justice League was generally considered to be an improvement upon the original, and Ayer has long maintained that “his version” of Suicide Squad would have the same result. He’s also remained positive about the eventual Ayer Cut release, even as DC Studios transitions away from the DC Extended Universe to its new James Gunn and Peter Safran-led era, but that hope is seemingly now squandered.

Following his initial “I’m done with DC” post, Ayer replied to a fan asking if he was still going to petition for the Suicide Squad extended cut to be released. “Nope. Done and done. Very sad,” he said. “You’ll be fine after a good cry. I feel healthier. It’s a wound that needs to heal.”

DC is moving on to a new cinematic universe called the DCU, which begins in 2024 with the Creature Commandos TV show and 2025 with the Superman: Legacy film, and Ayer was asked if this change had anything to do with his giving up on the Suicide Squad director’s cut.

“Nothing about the situation feels good,” he said. “[The] studio has no interest in releasing it. It’s time to run and not look back.” In another post, Ayer added: “Don’t need to be walking around with a begging bowl. Gonna protect my heart more moving forward.”

The 2016 Suicide Squad is one of the worst received DCEU entries and perhaps the first sign DC’s Marvel Cinematic Universe rival wasn’t going as planned, to the point where the studio itself rebooted the film with 2021’s The Suicide Squad, directed by now DC Studios co-CEO Gunn.

Ayer previously claimed Gunn was on board with releasing the Ayer cut eventually, though several stars of the former DCEU, such as Gal Gadot, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Henry Cavill, were also confused about their involvement in the franchise reboot.

In our 5/10 review of the original film, IGN said: “Suicide Squad is more like writer-director David Ayer’s flat-footed Fury than his razor-sharp Training Day (which he wrote), making for another unsatisfying entry in the DCEU.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.