David Ayer, the director of 2016’s Suicide Squad, is looking back at the DC film and opening up about one of his creative decision regrets.
Jared Leto portrayed supervillain Joker in the comic book-based movie and his version of the character had the word “damaged” tattooed across his forehead, an idea that Ayer proposed.
“I own the tattoo idea 100%. It was my choice,” Ayer shared on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “Original idea is it would say ‘Blessed’ and not ‘Damaged.'”
He continued, “Now having said that — I regret that decision. It created acrimony and division. Not every idea is a good idea. And I’ll just be in the corner here while the internet slaps me around for this post.”
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Ayer also recently made comments on social media saying that his cut of the film which also starred Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Will Smith as Deadshot and Viola Davis as Amanda Walker, could see the light of day sometime in the future.
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“There’s a genuine curiosity and interest from a lot of people. And I’m aware of there is another group of people that have fun mocking the film,” Ayer posted on X. “Your comment is a perfect example of how many are magnetically drawn discussion to the 2016 film in a negative way. Have you ever had an experience in life that didn’t until the way you wanted, that dragged you, that made you rethink everything? I have.”
He continued, “All I know is my unseen film plays much better than the studio release. The interest in my cut being show[n] seems real and organic. And Gunn told me it would have it’s [sic] time to be shared. He absolutely deserves to launch his DC universe without more drama about old projects. In a way I’m chained to this thing. I’m riding a tiger here and navigating this situation the best I can. Life is a very strange journey.”