Just like Justice League’s Snyder Cut, David Ayer's cut of 2016’s Suicide Squad is one of those fabled versions of a movie that fans just don’t want to let go of since being told that it exists on the cutting room floor. However, despite calls for the alternative version of the movie to be released, the mythical cut of the film just doesn’t seem likely to ever see light of day. However, that hasn’t stopped the film’s star Will Smith from adding his weight to the calls for the original cut of the movie to be released.
Will Smith played Deadshot in the original Suicide Squad film that has now been superseded by James Gunn’s well-received The Suicide Squad, which has already produced one spinoff series in Peacemaker. While Deadshot didn’t appear in the latest outing for the convict group turned heroes, Smith recently told Variety that he would “love to see” the Ayer Cut of the original Suicide Squad.
Smith was out and about promoting the new reboot, Bel-Air, and he was asked by Variety what he thought about the fabled Ayer Cut and if he would like to see it. Smith said:
“There’s a whole lot that stayed on the floor for Suicide Squad. I’m into it. I’d love to see it. I love that world. I love what was created in both versions. I absolutely would love to.”
Of course Smith is not the first star of the movie to join the rally call, as Jared Leto also gave his backing to the idea while promoting House of Gucci recently, but even with the stars of the movie behind the push that doesn’t mean we will ever get it see the Ayer Cut.
Could The Ayer Cut Be Resurrected By Warner Bros. Rapid Expansion of Its HBO Max Output?
Suicide Squad stands with Justice League as a movie that was not presented in cinemas in the way it was originally intended. Infamously, following Zack Snyder’s departure from Justice League due to a personal tragedy, Joss Whedon was brought in by Warner Bros. to oversee the film and ended up completely changing Snyder’s original vision. What resulted was a version of the movie that didn’t satisfy fans, and under performed at the box office, almost killing off the DCEU in the process. After a prolonged fan campaign, the Snyder Cut of Justice League was finally released as an HBO Max exclusive in 2021 and brought the original movie back to life. Although not perfect, the movie was much more satisfying for fans and proved a huge streaming hit.
The real question now is would Warner Bros. be pushing into making another fan demanded cut of a movie for HBO Max, which would inadvertently give the impression that they are easily swayed by a bit of social media pressure from audiences. So far, WarnerMedia CEO Ann Sarnoff has categorically stated that there are no plans for the Ayer Cut to be revisited similarly to Justice League, and that just seemed to stoke the fires of outrage even more.
While that seems to be the last word on the matter for now, Will Smith’s comments, and the continued tagging on social media suggests there is a lot of people who are not willing to let this go just yet. As more fan-pulling content for HBO Max is required to bolster audience and subscriber numbers, there is still a glimmer of hope that someday the Ayer Cut of Suicide Squad could join the HBO Max library. Just not yet.