As rumors swirl about his potential departure from the newly-restructured DC Extended Universe, Suicide Squad director David Ayer suggests that he's still very much involved with the upcoming Gotham City Sirens film.

Ayer was the director behind last year's Suicide Squad film - which, while a commercial success, was a critical flop and was held up by detractors as yet another example of DC's inability to capitalize on their considerable cast of characters. Both Ayer and the studio initially voiced solidarity for one another, with Ayer slated to direct a spinoff film starring Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, the breakout character from Suicide Squad. However, new reports suggesting Zack Snyder is being phased out of the DCEU's braintrust also indicated that Ayer would be parting ways with the studio. Ayer's incendiary comments about the headaches of big studio moviemaking at San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend, did nothing to quell such rumors.

Related: Why David Ayer is Making Gotham City Sirens, Not Suicide Squad 2

Ayer, however, appears to be attempting to quiet such rumors himself now. The director provocatively posted an image of Harley on his Twitter account, seemingly to indicate that he's still involved in the world of DC.

Ayer and DC are in a strange position. Ayer was a constant cheerleader for the studio during Suicide Squad's troubled production, which included extensive reshoots that served to lighten the movie's tone. He reportedly wrote the film's script in six weeks, which makes it a miracle the finished movie makes any sense at all.

Things started to take a strange turn a few months after Suicide Squad's release, when it became clear Ayer would not direct the upcoming sequel, instead talking up the Harley-centric spinoff Gotham City Sirens. However, DC did not showcase that film in its SDCC presentation, and with rumors of a Harley vs Joker movie in the works, it's difficult to see how Margot Robbie, one of the fastest rising stars in Hollywood, could realistically have time to shoot all of these movies in the next few years. Ayer's thinly-veiled shots at DC during his Comic-Con panel for his Netflix film Bright, seemed like a pretty sure sign things were headed for an acrimonious split.

It's possible that, like Snyder, Ayer will be credited as a producer on future DC projects without actively participating in their creative genesis. The list of reported members of Geoff Johns' DC Films braintrust included Joss Whedon, Patty Jenkins, and Matt Reeves, three creators whose work features a decidedly more nuanced, optimistic worldview than Ayer's. Whatever the outcome, it appears Ayer still has some dark DC tales on his mind.

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Source: David Ayer