Following Suicide Squad‘s poor reviews, an article revealed that lots of cuts were made, and Jared Leto even let it be known that he filmed enough scenes for an entire Joker solo movie, even though the Joker appeared in only around ten minutes or so of the film.
Now the Suicide Squad producers, Richard Suckle and Batman producer Charles Roven, come out and defend all the cuts as well as back Batman Vs. Superman and Justice League director Zack Snyder, who was also a producer on Suicide Squad.
“Yes, there were a couple of different cuts of the movie, but they all really had to do with finding the final shape of the movie,” Roven told WSJ. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, and that’s not the first time something like this has happened, and it won’t be the last. And so sometimes in order to get the work done, you really just have to bring on more people and spend really long days and nights getting work done to get it ready.”
Regarding cutting Jared Leto’s Joker from Suicide Squad, Roven mentions that’s also part of the process.
“David Ayer shoots a tremendous amount of footage, and when it comes to things having to do with the Joker, Jared does many takes and all the takes are very, very different, and sometimes the scenes can go on for a very long time, and sometimes the scenes can be, when you’re more on page, tighter, etc.” Roven said. “Sometimes those impromptu scenes are fantastic, sometimes they’re not. That’s all part of the process. What you don’t want to do is you don’t want to limit the process.”
Following the Batman Vs. Superman fallout, as the movie never reached the billion dollar mark and received equally as bad reviews a Suicide Squad, rumors were flying that Zack Snyder might be let go from Justice League – which hasn’t happened – but Roven offers Zack Snyder has their complete support.
“I’m just saying you need to pay attention [to criticism], but you also need to stay true to your vision,” says Roven, who is also on board Justice League as producer. “Zack Snyder is a great director.”
Suckle also added that regarding Suicide Squad, “We’re ecstatic by the fan support and the fan reaction that we’ve received.”
“Justice League” has a November 17, 2017 release, with “Wonder Woman” coming out June 2, 2017.
