Suicide Squad Director Regrets Not Making Joker The Main Villain

Suicide Squad director David Ayer has confirmed that he regrets not making the Joker the main villain of the movie. The third film in DC’s Extended Universe hit theaters in August of 2016, pulling in an impressive $745 million despite the largely negative critical consensus. It’s considered by many to be the weakest DCEU film to date, and it’s perhaps the best example of the litany of problems that plague the shared movie universe. Among the film’s major criticisms were its forgettable big bad (Cara Delevingne’s Enchantress) and choppy editing, both of which may have been the result of the sweeping changes that were made to the film during post-production. (Sound familiar?)

The big controversy for DC fans, however, was the seemingly reduced role for Jared Leto’s Joker. The trailers leading up to Suicide Squad heavily suggested that he would be a major presence in the film, but when the movie finally hit theaters, it became clear that the character’s role had been cut down significantly in the editing room. Leto himself would later confirm that quite a few of the scenes he filmed didn’t make the final cut — something that director David Ayer seemingly refuted on his Twitter account earlier today.

Replying to a fan question about a behind-the-scenes image of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, Ayer eventually stated that “there’s maybe a few minutes shot with Jared. There are not endless Joker scenes under guard somewhere. Sorry.” A few hours later, the director got even more candid with his Twitter followers.

21h

Jiwano Starshine@JoshDamage

Replying to @daamiedwards and 3 others

It was better than BVS. Joker should have been the Villian. Throw in Riddler like Assault on Arkham from the Animated Universe.

David Ayer

✔@DavidAyerMovies

Believe me. I agonize over this. Yes. Joker should have been main bad guy.

1:32 AM - Nov 27, 2017

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Ayer shared a similar sentiment in a tweet earlier this year, saying that he wished he had a time machine so that he could go back and make Suicide Squad into a more grounded story that featured Leto’s Joker as the big bad of it all. The Bright director hasn’t been shy about sharing his regrets over his first go-around in the DCEU, but hey, maybe he’ll get his shot at redemption if his planned Gotham City Sirens project ends up getting the green light. We haven’t heard much about the Suicide Squad spinoff since it was confirmed to still be in development in August, however, so that project may stay on the shelf for a while yet.

And yes, regardless of whether you loved or hated Leto’s brief appearance as the Joker, the Clown Prince of Crime would have been a far better big bad for Suicide Squad than Enchantress. That team should never have been fighting an apocalyptic-level threat; that was a terrible idea. Fingers crossed DC gets Task Force X right the second time around.