Suicide Squad Director Says Jared Leto Was “Mistreated” and Joker Was “Ripped Out of the Movie”

Since Warnermedia confirmed that Zack Snyder’s Justice League will be completed and released on HBO Max sometime next year, some fandoms have become emboldened by this outcome and have begun their own campaigns for sequels and alternate cuts of movies to be released. Perhaps the most popular of these that has sprung up is the “Release the Ayer Cut” movement, which calls for an alternate version of 2016’s Suicide Squad from filmmaker David Ayer. This cut was reportedly quite different from the theatrical version and featured more of Jared Leto‘s Joker, something Ayer himself says was “ripped out” of the movie.

Replying to a fan that was musing about their campaign (and noting that Jared Leto himself had taken notice of one of their tweets), Ayer showed further support for it adding: “Jared was pretty mistreated during this. No one has seen his performance. It was ripped out of the movie.”

Ayer has never been shy from sharing details about what took place in his original version of the movie, but this tweet does seem to go against what he’s said in the past. The director previously said that “There are not endless Joker scenes under guard somewhere,” but did concede that he should have made the character the big bad of the entire movie.

The director previously opened up about scenes featuring Leto’s Joker that were actually cut out of the movie though. Last month Ayer spoke about a deleted sequence featuring Common’s character and what happened in his version, saying: “It’s a long scene and Joker intimidated him into killing himself.” When asked by another fan if this scene was filmed, Ayer simply replied: “Yes.”

Ayer has gone on record in recent days to say that “yes,” his cut of the movie does exist. Fans have previously thought that a release of Ayer’s cut of the film might be impossible considering Warner Bros. plans for James Gunn’s movie The Suicide Squad, but Gunn himself has come out in support of the release of Ayer’s version of the movie, saying he’d “be okay with whatever @DavidAyerMovies & Warners wanted to release with that no problem.”

A recent rumor has come out that Warner Bros. has begun discussing the Ayer Cut of Suicide Squad at some point on HBO Max, similarly to how they are approaching Justice League. The report outlines that it would be relatively easy to finish the cut, something that Ayer and those tied to the studio have recently hinted as well. Stay tuned here for potential updates on the movie as we learn them.