Advertisement

David Ayer: I should have made Joker the main villain in Suicide Squad

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, especially if you’re film director David Ayer.

Como o desempenho de Jared Leto se compara a outros intérpretes clássicos do palhaço mais temido dos quadrinhos? Difícil dizer, já que o vilão fica pouquíssimo tempo em cena, decepcionando muitos dos que foram ver ‘Esquadrão Suicida’. (Divulgação)
Jared Leto in ‘Suicide Squad’. Credit: Warner Bros.

And in the case of ‘Suicide Squad’ director Ayer’s reflection on how the DC movies turned out, he’s admitted he would go back and change a few things. Some pretty big things, as it turns out.

The director surprisingly issued a fan with a detailed response over on Twitter, as the helmer openly discussed ‘Suicide Squad’ and cleared up his feelings on making it.

“Thank you so much. I know it’s a controversial film, I really tried to make something different, with a look and a voice of its own,” Ayer said in a rather lengthy letter to a fan on the social media site. While he thanked fans and insisted he tried his best to make something different, the interesting part is when he says what he perhaps should have done with Jared Leto’s The Joker.

“Wish I had a time machine. I’d make Joker the main villain and engineer a more grounded story. I have to take the good and bad and learn from it. I love making movies and I love DC.”

Well, that’s a rather big thing to say; essentially admitting he’d redo the movie very differently with hindsight.

Here’s his Twitter response in full.

As it stands, Joker is a small villainous side narrative that links into Harley Quinn’s (Margot Robbie) backstory, causing even more mayhem as Cara Delevingne’s Enchantress turns out to be the big nasty of the piece. Imagine if Joker had been the primary villain? ‘Suicide Squad’ would have certainly been a very different movie. For starters it’s unlikely we would’ve had that elaborate supernatural element we ended up with – its narratives and the entire ‘good vs bad’ dynamic would’ve been shaken up somewhat.

Heck, Ayer even admits that the film has it’s flaws -and let’s be frank, it really does – which is hard for any director to say publicly, and reveals it hurt him seeing reviews that ripped his movie apart.

He goes on to say he’s just grateful for doing what he loves, but another snippet near the end is worthy of note, as it reads: “I have to give the characters the stories and plots they deserve next time. Real talk. (And no, there isn’t a secret edit of the film with a bunch of Joker scenes hidden in a salt mine somewhere.)”

Gracias a un tráiler espectacular y a una premisa que reunía a los villanos del universo de DC Comics, ‘Suicide Squad’ cautivó al público en general. A pesar de las críticas negativas, la película de David Ayer convocó a las masas e hizo $745,600,054 a nivel internacional. (©Warner Bros.)
The squad in action. Credit: Warner Bros.

What is this “next time” he speaks of? Surely Warner Bros. haven’t given him another DC property to handle, or is he referring to a possible ‘Suicide Squad 2’? But the final line, saying there are in fact no additional Joker scenes, is surprising in the sense that Jared Leto was allegedly upset with the film’s final cut because a lot of his scenes were cut out. This contradicts Ayer’s comments, unless the removed cuts were destroyed, but that wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Either way, the Extended Cut that came out on DVD and Blu-ray didn’t offer much else in terms of making it a more coherent movie, so it’s open to debate whether additional Joker scenes would’ve even helped.

Read more:
Shia LaBeouf sets up a live-stream anti-Trump project for 4 years
Sir Ian McKellen had the best sign at the Women’s March
Rogue One crosses $1 billion at the box office