Suicide Squad's unreleased Ayer Cut just received a tease that Zack Snyder's Justice League never had with the release of an 11-second clip from the film. As would later happen with the Justice League Cuts, Suicide Squad was drastically altered before hitting theaters with hasty reshoots and editing that reshaped it from the film it was conceived as. After the release of Justice League, the unprecedented #ReleaseTheSnyderCut push emerged, eventually achieving its goal with the May 2020 announcement of Zack Snyder's Justice League hitting HBO Max in 2021.
The energy behind the Snyder Cut movement was significantly fueled by Snyder himself. As Snyder released still images, concept art, and storyboards on social media, interest grew more and more widespread for his cut of Justice League to be released. The greenlighting of the Snyder Cut would also lead many fans to turn their attention to the Ayer Cut, which has steadily drawn more public interest.
The new clip, shared by The Film Exiles Podcast, shows the Ayer Cut's version of the Joker (Jared Leto) rescuing Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) by helicopter. The Ayer Cut hasn't lacked social media teases in the vein of the Snyder Cut's. Ayer has also released images from the film on social media, while numerous script pages have leaked, showing how different the two versions are. However, in all of Zack Snyder's teases of the Snyder Cut, actual footage from the film was never a part of them. The alone makes Ayer Cut's clip a big difference for the growing interest in it.
Moreover, the clip has also arrived as chatter pertaining to the Ayer Cut has intensified greatly. Several cast members from the first Suicide Squad have expressed support for the Ayer Cut's release, including Jared Leto and Jay Hernandez. More recently, the Ayer Cut received support from Will Smith, garnering even more attention for it. It goes without saying that footage from the Ayer Cut has done nothing but keep the torch for it burning hotter. When it comes to the Snyder Cut, much energy was spent on debating whether the film even existed at all or not. The Ayer Cut hasn't faced such a hurdle, Ayer having made clear on social media what the state of the film is. With an actual clip, however short, from the Ayer Cut released online, the conversation around it is quite different than the Snyder Cut's was.
The release of footage raises obvious questions as to whether the Ayer Cut might finally be released. Naturally, there are details that would need to be worked out for the Ayer Cut to happen. This would include getting a "Yes" from the studio after WB CEO Ann Sarnoff's previous declaration that it wouldn't be moving forward. Having said that, with no similar clip ever seen from Zack Snyder's Justice League ahead of its greenlighting, the Suicide Squad Ayer Cut push has gained a whole new aura of curiosity.
