In a string of now-deleted X posts, The Beekeeper director David Ayer said he was “done and done” fighting for his own release of the 2016 film, Suicide Squad.
After several years, plenty of bad-mouthing and what looks like a pretty small amount of lost love, it seems that David Ayer has finally thrown in the towel after fighting for the release of his own cut of 2016’s Suicide Squad.
Taking to X/Twitter/Elon’s-dodgy-party-fun-house, Ayer responded to a fan asking about the project with an efficient “I’m done with DC”.
In a now-deleted series of posts, he then added (according to Dark Horizons):
“Nope. Done and done. Very sad. You’ll be fine after a good cry. I feel healthier. It’s a wound that needs to heal. Nothing about the situation feels good. Studio has no interest in releasing it. It’s time to run and not look back.”
Ayer also added: “Don’t need to be walking around with a begging bowl. Gonna protect my heart more moving forward.”
Rumours have swirled around the release of an “Ayer’s cut” almost since Suicide Squad debuted to, shall we say, mixed reviews in 2016, but talk ramped up considerably following the release of Zack Snyder’s four-hour cut of Justice League in 2021. While Ayer himself has previously indicated new DC Studios head James Gunn had given the idea his blessing, execs at Warner Bros have long proved resistant to getting the cut released.
The news shouldn’t come as much of a surprise; Gunn’s own version of DC’s gang of criminal misfits (confusingly titled The Suicide Squad) was well-received by critics, but made just $169m against a production budget of $185m. Compared to something like Justice League, it was always unlikely that a new take on a relatively obscure property many people felt they had already seen in 2016 would justify the time spent in the editing suite/visual effects lab.
Now, though, it looks like this whole sticky business is finally settled. We’re sure this is the last we’ll hear of any of it.
