David Ayer Emphatically Distanced Himself From ‘Suicide Squad’ Following The Overwhelmingly Positive Reviews For ‘The Suicide Squad’

Maybe it’s unfair to compare Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad. They’re two different movies from two different directors, and only one has a shark. Not just any shark, either, but King Shark. Of course The Suicide Squad is getting good reviews with King Shark in it. But I’m not sure anyone expected it to have a 99 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising its cast, humor, and gleeful violence. It’s actually the DC Extended Universe’s top-rated movie on the review aggregation website, while Suicide Squad, the one starring Jared Leto, is at the bottom with 26 percent.

Director David Ayer has long felt that 2016’s (Oscar winning!) Suicide Squad was a victim of reshoots and that the intended cut is “an amazing movie” that “just scared the sh*t out of the executives.” On Thursday, a day after The Suicide Squad review embargo lifted, he compiled all his thoughts into a lengthy note on Twitter.

“I put my life into Suicide Squad,” Ayer wrote. “I made something amazing. My cut is intricate and emotional journey with some bad people who are shit on and discarded (a theme that resonates in my soul). The studio cut is not my movie. Read that again. And my cut is not the 10 week director’s cut — it’s a fully mature edit by Lee Smith standing on the incredible work by John Gilroy. It’s all Steven Price’s brilliant score, with not a single radio song in the whole thing. It has traditional character arcs, amazing performances, a solid third-act resolution. A handful of people have seen it.”

Ayer added that he’s never fully told his side of the story and never will. Why? “I’m old school like that. So I kept my mouth shut and took the tsunami of sometimes shocking personal criticism,” he wrote. Ayer finished by praising The Suicide Squad director James Gunn and that he supports Warner Bros. and he’s thrilled “the franchise is getting the legs it needs… James’ brilliant work will be the miracles of miracles. I appreciate your patience. I will no longer speak publicly on the matter.” The top reply:

You can read the entire note below.