Jared Leto‘s performance as The Joker was drastically cut from ‘Suicide Squad’ and now director David Ayer is explaining his original plan for the character. With so many scenes being chopped you would imagine that maybe The Joker initially had a completely different part to play in Ayer’s story. If this is what you thought, you’d be correct!
When we first saw The Joker’s helicopter crash he had a more significant part to play. In the original cut of the movie, Cara Delebingne’s Enchantress “made a deal with him” that allowed The Joker to “take Harley home and be ‘King of Gotham’.” This would have been the defining moment where “Harley stood up to him and refused to betray her new friends” and directly after “The Squad turned on him and he escaped.” This was planned to show Harley’s “growth and empowerment” which was still displayed on screen but it is debatable as to which route would have had more impact.
Here is how Ayer describes the scenes directly:
After Joker dropped HQ from the help and crashed, Enchantress made a deal with him. He was going to take Harley home and be “King of Gotham” Harley stood up to him and refused to betray her new friends. The Squad turned on him and he escaped. https://t.co/unnOewEYBQ
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) March 24, 2018
Honestly David, if you made the movie about Harley going from being Joker’s abused pet, to breaking free of him and learning to love her new friends in the Suicide squad, that would’ve made the movie and her arc way better.
— Ryan Phan (@RP_Ronin) March 24, 2018
That was her arc. Growth and empowerment. https://t.co/4EancRBaHl
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) March 24, 2018
Honestly, a Harley Quinn redemption story sounds as if it would have been a better watch. Instead, we have a ‘Suicide Squad 2‘ film in the works, a “Joker vs Harley Quinn” movie which will hopefully really dig into this, and a ‘Gotham City Sirens‘ film.
The idea can still find its way into a major motion picture but ‘Suicide Squad’ will never be able to give us what Ayer originally intended.
Do you think this story would have worked better for the success of ‘Suicide Squad’ or would we have gotten a movie of the same caliber? Share your thoughts below!
Source: Entertainment Weekly