Suicide Squad Director David Ayer Says Jared Leto’s Joker Was Better in His Cut

Ever since Zack Snyder’s Justice League was confirmed to be in the works, some fans of the World of DC on film turned their attention to championing another alternate cut by pining for David Ayer’s original version of Suicide Squad. Ayer has been open about the fact that the theatrical cut differs from his original vision in a variety of ways, and among the most spotlighted is that Jared Leto‘s Joker was not only featured in more scenes but that his performance wasn’t cut around or kneecapped in anyway. The filmmaker has thrown more fire on this today when a fan simply alleged that Leto was better in the Ayer Cut by adding the two word comment: “Vastly better.”

The filmmaker previously confirmed that he shot a lot of scenes that hit the cutting room floor for the movie including a climactic showdown between Joker and Task Force X where the Clown Prince of Crime has the detonator for the bombs implanted in their heads. Ayer wrote on Twitter “Shot and edited, Of course you were not permitted to see it my friend.” In this version of the climax, when the Squad is facing off against Enchantress, Joker shows up out of the shadows and tries to threaten them into allowing Enchantress whatever she wants. Some in the team think it’s another illusion, but the script doesn’t make that clear either way.

In another previous tweet, Ayer revealed that much of Harley Quinn’s story had been changed for “political” reasons, revealing back in April: “Sadly her story arc was eviscerated. It was her movie in so many ways. Look I tried. I rendered Harley comic book accurate. Everything is political now. Everything. I just want to entertain. I will do better.”

To make things even more interesting, Ayer’s original version of his film would have tied it in directly to Zack Snyder’s Justice League as well. Concept art for Parademons in the movie was previously released with Ayer confirming that these Apokalips minions and Steppenwolfe were supposed to appear in his movie before they were slated to debut in Justice League.

“Enchantress was under the control of a mother box and Steppenwolfe was prepping an invasion with a boom tube,” the director revealed. “Had to lose that then the JL story arcs evolved.”

As fans now know though, Jared Leto will return to the part of the Joker for a quick scene that was added to Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League which is now scheduled to be released in March of next year on HBO Max.