Why We Might Never See A Snyder Cut Of James Gunn's Suicide Squad
After a tumultuous creative period for director James Gunn, the filmmaker finally returns with his new DCEU film "The Suicide Squad."
A mix of sequel and reboot of the maligned David Ayer 2016 movie, "The Suicide Squad" is the second adaptation of DC's comic book series about a task force of convicts sent into extremely dangerous missions in exchange for shorter sentences. Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), and Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) all return from the first film, while new characters include mercenary Bloodsport (Idris Elba), the ironically named Peacemaker (John Cena), Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher, and Michael Rooker as Savant, a computer hacker ... but super. The unlikely crew are forced to survive when a mission goes wrong and they're forced to encounter a much bigger threat than they ever imagined.
The trailer seems to promise a fun, blackly hilarious romp. At a recent press event Looper attended that included Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, James Gunn, and producer Chuck Roven, the team explained why there likely won't be a director's cut of "The Suicide Squad" at any point in the future.
The theatrical cut of The Suicide Squad is Gunn's definitive statement
The main reason there is no director-preferred version of the film is that — unlike the situation with Zach Snyder, where "Justice League" was essentially reshot by Joss Whedon – "The Suicide Squad" was James Gunn's vision from start to finish.
Producer Peter Safran believed that what made the film work "was simply about giving him [Gunn] the tools to do it, and part of it was just giving him the freedom. Cast whoever he wanted, shoot in whatever way that he wanted. The studio gave him complete carte blanche, and the movie you see is a result of that."
Gunn himself commented on "the enormous amount of freedom" he was given to make the film, and how this made him work that much harder on the project.
That mix of Gunn's dedication and creative freedom seems to have made the shoot extremely satisfying for the cast. Joel Kinnaman said making the movie was "easy and fun" — unlike other big productions he'd worked on: "I do not think we did an hour of overtime and we did not do any re-shoots on this movie." This, however, disappointed Michael Rooker, who joked, "That is where I make my money, in ADR."
Audiences meanwhile will get to see the final work themselves, and what Gunn made with his unfettered vision, when "The Suicide Squad" opens on August 6.