Suicide Squad Director Reveals Katana Had Bigger Role in His Cut

It's been almost four years since the release of Suicide Squad, but the DC Comics-inspired film is still on many fans' minds. This has only been hyped up in the past few months, as fans try to campaign for the "Ayer Cut" - an extended version that would fall more in line with director David Ayer's original vision - to be released. While the release of the Ayer Cut still isn't a guarantee yet, we do know one character who would have been more prominently featured. Ayer recently took to Twitter to reveal that Tatsu Yamashiro/Katana (Karen Fukuhara) had a "bigger role" in his initial cut.

She had a bigger role in my cut https://t.co/TDIZ85Gdsn

— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) June 30, 2020

Previous tweets from Ayer do hint at what that could entail, as he recently hinted that one scene from the film's trailer - with Katana's eyes turning black - was part of a scene where she was briefly possessed by Enchantress (Cara Delevingne) and attacked the rest of the Squad. It's unclear what deleted scenes there are with Katana beyond that, although Fukuhara has expressed a desire to further explore her character's canon.

"I'd like to explore where she's from, what kind of training she comes from – if she gets a stand-alone movie that would be awesome!" Fukuhara told ComicBook.com back in 2016. "There's so much story from the point of her husband's death to her story leading up to Suicide Squad – that's something that I'd love to show on the screen."

The nature of the "Ayer Cut" has captivated DC fans in recent weeks, especially after the confirmation of Zack Snyder's Justice League cut arriving on HBO Max.

Unlike Justice League - which changed drastically during reshoots after Snyder had to step away due to a family tragedy - Ayer's initial cut of Suicide Squad got as far as the test screening phase, and was seemingly met with a good response from test audiences. The film was eventually recut into what was ultimately released in theaters, reportedly due to changes suggested by Warner Bros. executives.

"This cut of the movie is my cut. There's no sort of parallel universe version of the movie, the released movie is my cut," Ayer previously said in a 2016 interview. "And that's one of the toughest things about writing, shooting, and directing a film, is you end up with these orphans and you f—king love them and you think they'd be amazing scenes and do these amazing things but the film is a dictatorship, not a democracy, and just because something's cool and charismatic doesn't mean it gets to survive in the final cut. The flow of the movie is the highest master."

What do you think of Katana having a larger role in Suicide Squad's "Ayer Cut"? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!