Suicide Squad Director Regrets Not Making Joker the Main Villain

On Saturday, an appreciative fan—who goes by the name PensFanboy on Twitter—reached out to David Ayer to tell the director he is thankful for Suicide Squad and thinks it’s a “masterpiece.” Not long after, a grateful Ayer posted a response. It begins with him thanking the fan for the kind words, but the rest of the lengthy and refreshingly candid message addresses the film’s ups and downs.

While he’s elated Suicide Squad grossed three-quarters of a billion dollars at the worldwide box office and successfully introduced many lesser known DC characters into the DCEU, he admitted the film has its fair share of flaws and he was hurt by the amount of criticism heaped upon it by critics—seeing as though he put a lot of time and effort into trying to make the best possible comic book movie he could. He also admitted that one of his biggest regrets is not making Joker (Jared Leto) the film’s main villain.

“Thank you so much,” a grateful Ayer wrote. “I know it’s a controversial film, I really tried to make something different, with a look and a voice of its own.

“I took inspiration from the insanity of the original comics,” he continued. “Making a movie is a journey, not a straight line. I learned so much. People want what they want, and everyone has a personal vision of how each character should look and walk and talk. If you set out to make a mass appeal movie, it’s easy to end up with vanilla. But I went for it. And I know Squad has its flaws, Hell, the World knows it. Nothing hurts more than to pick a newspaper and see a couple years of your blood, sweat and tears ripped to shreds. The hate game is strong out there.

“The movie was wildly successful commercially. And the World got introduced into some very cool characters in the DC Universe. And that success is due exactly to the wonder and power of DC, of its characters. Would I do a lot of things different? Yep, for sure.

“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. I’m a High School dropout and used to paint houses for a living. I’m lucky to have the job I have. 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 slat mine somewhere.)”

Assemble a team of the world’s most dangerous, incarcerated Super Villains, provide them with the most powerful arsenal at the government’s disposal, and send them off on a mission to defeat an enigmatic, insuperable entity.U.S. intelligence officer Amanda Waller has determined only a secretly convened group of disparate, despicable individuals with next to nothing to lose will do.However, once they realize they weren’t picked to succeed but chosen for their patent culpability when they inevitably fail, will the Suicide Squad resolve to die trying, or decide it’s every man for himself?

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