Suicide Squad: James Gunn Supports Releasing Ayer Cut Before His Sequel

James Gunn is all for Warner Bros. releasing for David Ayer’s cut of Suicide Squad before his film, The Suicide Squad, rolls out. With news of Zack Snyder’s Justice League hitting HBO Max next year, fans are now pushing for the 2016 DC film to also get its director’s version released. If this comes to fruition, Gunn, who is directing the follow-up The Suicide Squad, has no issues with that.

Ayer was initially attached to Suicide Squad‘s sequel and spinoffs after the film performed well at the box office despite divisive critical reviews. As Warner Bros. re-evaluated their approach to the DCEU, that’s no longer the case with the franchise moving in a different direction. That’s further proven when the studio tapped Gunn to first write, and then direct another villain-centric movie tipped to release August next year. It’s still unknown whether or not The Suicide Squad will be a sequel, a reboot, or a combination of both – regardless Gunn says there’s no problem if Ayer’s cut of the original film releases before his iteration.

Related: Suicide Squad 2: Why Will Smith’s Deadshot Isn’t Returning for the Sequel

Asked on Twitter about the matter, Gunn straightforwardly replied, saying he’s okay with whatever Warner Bros. and Ayer will decide to do. Tagged in his answer, Ayer quoted the tweet and expressed his appreciation with regard to his fellow filmmaker’s stance on the matter. He also added that he’s genuinely excited to see Gunn’s work on The Suicide Squad. Check out the tweets below:

Warner Bros. has yet to comment about their plans for the growing calls for Ayer’s Suicide Squad to be released. The director has ramped up the rollout of behind-the-scenes images and information regarding his original vision for the movie which was changed due to a couple of reasons. Aside from the rushed production, there was also reported meddling from Warner Bros. following the divisive reception to Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice resulted in a significantly changed story. Meanwhile, reshoots were extensive as well. In the end, Ayer’s full intended narrative didn’t make it on the big screen with Harley Quinn’s (Margot Robbie) story eviscerated and Joker (Jared Leto) pretty much non-existent.

It’s nice to see filmmakers like Gunn and Ayer supporting each other, especially considering the situation they’re currently in. Aside from this, it’s curious if the reason why Gunn is totally fine with Suicide Squad Ayer cut coming out before The Suicide Squad is because the follow-up doesn’t really have any narrative connection to its predecessor, other than the fact that it features some of the same characters. Assuming that this is the case, it’s still interesting to see how people will reach to Ayer’s version and how it will impact its contemporary. It’s worth noting that the sequel/soft reboot’s story is already locked with the project already in post-production, so additional changes (if there’s any) would have to be done in potential reshoots.

More: Will David Ayer’s Suicide Squad Get A Director’s Cut?

Source: James Gunn, David Ayer