‘Suicide Squad’ Director Denies There Were Endless Joker Scenes Cut

One of the common critiques of Suicide Squad is that the film contained far less of Jared Leto’s Joker than was expected and Leto himself has said that there was a lot of his material that didn’t make the theatrical cut of the film. However, director David Ayer that material is minimal at best.

Ayer spent some time on Twitter today answering fan questions about Suicide Squad and one user posted a behind-the-scenes photo of Margot Robbie getting makeup done as Harley Quinn and asked if fans would ever get to see the scene associated with it. Ayer responded that there was no scene to see.

“This was a pick up shot for the Harley introduction montage,” Ayer wrote. “There was no scene or dialogue. I needed a basket of visuals to introduce her. Same with the Joker stuff. There’s maybe a few minutes shot with Jared. There are not some endless Joker scenes under guard somewhere. Sorry.”

While Ayer insists there isn’t anything major to come to light, Leto has repeatedly indicated that his role as the Joker was a lot larger, but that the footage was cut from the film.

“There are a lot of scenes that didn’t make it to the final film,” Leto told Telestar last year. “Hopefully they will see the light of day. Who knows.”

While that comment was a bit vague, Leto was a bit more specific when he spoke with IGN about deleted scenes around that same time, first hinting that there was more to the story when The Joker disappears after the helicopter he was in crashes and then specifically talking about the types of scenes that were shot.

“Were there any that didn’t get cut?” Leto said. “I’m asking you, were there any that didn’t get cut? There were so many scenes that cut from the movie, I couldn’t even start. I think that the Joker… we did a lot of experimentation on the set, we explored a lot. There’s so much that we shot that’s not in the film. If I die anytime soon, it’s probably likely that it’ll surface somewhere. That’s the good news about the death of an actor is that all that stuff seems to come out.”

While Leto’s comments about the quantity of Joker footage that exists differs, it also might come down to perception of what constitutes “footage.” Ayer specifically references scenes while Leto seems to talk more about less structured footage. It’s possible that what Leto considers usable footage, Ayer considers just extra in-character moments that was caught on film. No matter what the reality is about what material may or may not exist, on thing is for certain: fans would have liked to see more of the Joker, something that Ayer himself regrets not giving them.