Despite the massive success Suicide Squad received at the box office, director David Ayer is talking about what could have been done differently.
The highly-anticipated release of August 2016's Suicide Squad was met with mixed criticism about its lack of a villainous vibe that instead toned down its violence and criminal behavior for a lighter watch, even though, after all, it's a movie about villains. Ayer had set out to direct a much darker film and although the movie was a hit at the box office, drawing in $746.5 million, the film wasn't up to expectations and Ayer has spoken out about his regrets making the movie.
Ayer penned Twitter stating, "I wish I had a time machine. I'd make Joker the main villain and engineer a more grounded story...(And no there isn't a secret edit of the film with a bunch of Joker scenes hidden in a salt mine somewhere).
"I know it's a controversial film," Ayer went on to say, "I really tried to make something different, with a look and feel of its own. I took inspiration from the insanity of the original comics. If you set out to make a mass appeal movie, it's easy to end up with vanilla. But I went for it. And I know Squad has its flaws, hell, the world knows it. Nothing hurts more than to pick up a newspaper and see a couple years of your blood, sweat and tears ripped to shreds."
Many D.C. fans believed the original trailers for Suicide Squad were deceitful and said it was "false advertising" because the ultimate product wasn't what they were lead to believe after reshoots and further edits were made to the film.
So Ayer hadn't set out to make a "funny" or "lighthearted" movie about villains but that is what it ultimately became, much to the contrast of the original darker movie he had directed. "The movie was wildly successful commercially. And the world got introduced into some very cool characters in the DC universe. And that success is due exactly to the wonder and power of DC, of its characters. Would I do a lot of things different? Yep, for sure."
Ayer may get the chance to do things right with his current production of an all female villain movie featuring Margot Robbie reprising her role as Harley-Quinn. That movie is currently titled Gotham City Sirens.