The DCEU is behind us, but information about the previous shared universe is still trickling out. Fans are looking forward to co-CEO James Gunn's plans for the new DCU, starting with Gods and Monsters, although there is still some discourse about previous projects like David Ayer's Suicide Squad. And while the director explained how Batman and Deadshot's scene was supposed to go, I'm still not convinced.
Moviegoers who spent years watching the DC movies in order will recall the fan excitement about Batman appearing in Suicide Squad (which is streaming with a HBO Max subscription). He had two brief scenes, arresting Harley Quinn and Deadshot prior to the movie's main storyline. But the latter scene was originally longer, and Ayer took to Twitter to reveal his original plans. In the filmmaker's words:
Wish you could see the scene as shot. There’s a lot going on. It’s rich and emotional. Perhaps by arresting her father, Batman believes he’s sparing her worse trauma. Or perhaps with his own traumatic past Batman is doing what many hurt people do: he’s leaving wreckage behind him without being aware.
For years now David Ayer cited studio interference messing up his original vision for Suicide Squad. He even went so far as to say Joker and Harley's story was eviscerated. And it sounds like he wanted way more screen time shared between Batman and Will Smith's Deadshot.
After the Zack Snyder's Justice League was green lit and completed, some fans called for Suicide Squad to get the Ayer Cut, therefore allowing the filmmaker's vision to finally be realized. Unfortunately, there's been no indication of this happening. Later in the same tweet, the Training Day director went on to share what he wanted to accomplish with Batman and Deadshot's scene, offering:
Batman has always operated at the edge. Does he fight and arrest bad guys to protect his wounded inner child? Is he just reenacting the past from an unhealthy place? I love this kind of debate.
While I respect Ayer's vision, I'm not sure I would have liked to see this sequence work out in such a matter. Ben Affleck brought a jaded and murderous Bruce Wayne to the screen in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but the character was changed by that experience and was a more hopeful hero in future DC movies. That includes saving Harley Quinn from drowning before her arrest, as well as the events of both Justice League movies.
The moral question posed by Ayer is interesting, but I think it would have taken away from the redemption arc that was started for Batfleck post-Dawn of Justice. Instead, I think this type of scene would work better in a project like The Batman, which is focused on Bruce Wayne and the darker side of being Gotham's Protector.
Suicide Squad is streaming on HBO Max now, and the next DCU movie hitting theaters is Supergirl on June 26th as part of the 2026 movie release list.
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