David Ayer’s Suicide Squad is the first DC movie to trend on Netflix making the streamer’s Top 10 list, which follows Warner Bros. Discovery licensing out DC content to the streaming service, including The Batman.
The film was released in 2016 and while a box office success, was lambasted by the critics (26% Rotten Tomatoes Score) with the fans also not feeling it (58% Audience Score).
Suicide Squad also followed Zack Snyder’s Batman vs. Superman which also wasn’t well received (29% / 63%). Zack Snyder’s Justice League was to follow, but Snyder stepped away due to a family emergency. Joss Whedon was brought on board to redo the movie, but Whedon’s Justice League also failed to deliver. James Gunn is now rebooting with the DCU.
Following the release of Suicide Squad, it was revealed the film wasn’t director David Ayer’s original version. Similar to the Snyder Cut, born was the Ayer Cut.
Zack Snyder ended up finishing his version of Justice League for the HBO Max streaming service. It now appears as if the Ayer Cut will finally see the light of day.
Immense political headwind against the Ayer Cut
Ayer spoke with Total Film and addressed the release and the controversy and it is known, similar to Snyder, Ayer, too, also went through a lot of studio interference.
“I think so. I’m going to be hopeful. You know, there are a lot of people that are invested in certain narratives that don’t want it to see the light of day. So there’s an immense political headwind against it, because if that cut were made public, the cowardliness and the whole just general shittiness of how the film’s been treated, and how the actors have had this great work that they’d done taken away.”
“That narrative blows up once people see the movie. But it’s coming. Something’s going to happen. Something’s going to be revealed. The truth always comes out. It always comes out.”
Ayer also added on Twitter in response to negative comments from a fan, “There’s a famous quote that nobody knows anything in Hollywood. SS16 was financially success and spawned a lot of sequels. My cut is vastly different. A much better playing film. Hard to believe but the cuts couldn’t be more different.”
“Nice to see this in the top ten,” he also tweeted about his movie making the “Top Movies In The U.S. Today” list on Netflix. “Diablo definitely had more love in my cut.”
Nice to see this in the top ten. @netflix pic.twitter.com/NQcfIV4Rha
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) December 4, 2023