James Gunn's The Suicide Squad was recently released and people's reactions to it have been of high praise. Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn was back, and she has a new team this time around to accomplish morally questionable goals. As many people know, however, this wasn't Task Force X's first rodeo.
Way back before The Suicide Squad was a thing, writer and director David Ayer got a crack at it in 2016. The film was highly anticipated at the time, with Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn and Will Smith's Deadshot leading the charge.
Sadly, when the movie did hit, it did so with explosive reactions from critics and fans alike—just not the good ones that Warner Bros. was hoping for.
In the years that followed, stories and rumors made their way to the web, painting a picture of a severely troubled production. Not unlike Justice League, whose original director Zack Snyder got a once-in-a-lifetime chance to show the world the movie he meant to make, with an entirely new cut of the film, thanks to this year's Zack Snyder's Justice League.
That precedent has started a following to try and pressure Warner Bros. into releasing the "Ayer Cut" of 2016's Suicide Squad. Now, thanks to a Twitter user who supports the movement, fans get to see a fairly notable shot from a racy deleted scene:
SUICIDE KISSING SQUAD
Thanks to Twitter user @RTAyerCutSS, a brand-new screenshot from a deleted scene of Suicide Squad has hit the web.
The scene in question depicts Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn and Will Smith's Deadshot sharing an intimate kiss, likely after the threat has been vanquished and Joker believed to be dead.
The photo can be seen in the tweet below.
Boom. ;) #ReleaseTheAyerCut pic.twitter.com/BxzE8tP2qq
— ReleaseTheAyerCut (@RTAyerCutSS) August 13, 2021
HARLEY AND DEADSHOT SITTING IN A TREE
Harley and Deadshot certainly seem like a strange pairing to have tried to pull off. While Robbie and Smith shared a notable dynamic on screen, hinting at Harley already moving on to someone else after Joker seems like it would have been a little unnecessary.
The question remains though: will fans get the "Ayer Cut" which some clearly want so badly? After the successful reception of The Suicide Squad, it's highly unlikely. Zack Snyder's Justice League was only made because the original film—that Warner Bros. had their part in mangling—did so badly, and COVID gave the studio a need for something new and reasonably large.
Many might point to the questionable financial success of The Suicide Squad as an indicator that there might be some chance that Ayer gets his time to shine. One would have to hope the studio realizes all the circumstances in which Gunn's film was released, all of which did anything but help the movie.
While the future is still looking bright for Gunn's time in the DCEU, fans at the very least have Peacemaker to look forward to when it is released on HBO Max.