Suicide Squad Director David Ayer Explains The Joker's Deleted Scenes
When Suicide Squad was released in theaters, fans were surprised to see that it didn't include much of Jared Leto as the Joker. Even Leto himself was disappointed with the heavy editing that his character and performance received. What was left on the cutting room floor eventually made it to behind-the-scenes featurettes in the home release of Suicide Squad, but director David Ayer recently revealed additional details on what the Clown Prince of Crime was originally supposed to get up to in Suicide Squad.
Ayer took to Twitter over the weekend to address and explain the deleted Joker scenes. As viewers know, Suicide Squad sees the Joker drop Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) from a helicopter, which then crashes, leaving the Joker's fate uncertain until the end of the film. What was meant to play out onscreen, as Ayer described, is that Enchantress (Cara Delevingne) "made a deal" with the Joker so he could "take Harley home and be 'King of Gotham'" by the movie's end. Harley then "stood up to him and refused to betray her new friends" and "the Squad turned on him and he escaped."
Some fans weren't happy when they caught wind of Ayer's explanation, with one stating that Suicide Squad would have been much better had Ayer not scrapped these Joker-centric scenes. "Honestly David, if you made the movie about Harley going from being Joker's abused pet to breaking free of him and learning to love her new friends in the Suicide Squad, that would've made the movie and her arc way better," the fan tweeted. Ayer responded, "That was her arc. Growth and empowerment."
Instead of seeing what Ayer originally planned, we witnessed Harley leaving the helicopter crash site and teaming back up with Deadshot (Will Smith), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), and the rest of the super-villain crew, then stopping Enchantress from unleashing her chaos and destruction upon the world.
This isn't the first time Ayer has discussed the Joker's involvement (or lack thereof) in Suicide Squad. Shortly after the film's release, the director expressed his regrets about how he depicted the character. "Wish I had a time machine. I'd make Joker the main villain and engineer a more grounded story," Ayer wrot in a lengthy post on Twitter. "I have to take the good and bad and learn from it. I love making movies and I love DC [Comics]. I'm a high school dropout and used to paint houses for a living. I'm lucky to have the job I have. I have to give the characters the stories and plots they deserve. Real talk."
Though Suicide Squad may have missed the mark in a satisfying portrayal of the Joker, we'll see plenty more of the green-haired madman in the future. Warner Bros. is currently working on a Suicide Squad sequel, a Joker and Harley Quinn movie from Crazy, Stupid, Love writer-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, and a solo Joker origin movie by The Hangover director Todd Phillips. The character may also pop up in the studio's planned Harley Quinn spinoff and its Gotham City Sirens movie.