You can’t begrudge a guy for trying — especially when he’s watched others get exactly what he want doing exactly the same thing. Fans, spurred on by director Zack Snyder, hounded Warner Bros. until they agreed to fund a director’s cut of Justice League, and now Suicide Squad director David Ayer wants exactly the same thing. Since the announcement of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which is supposedly coming to HBO Max next year, Ayer has repeatedly talked up the possibility of doing something similar for Suicide Squad, which was a much bigger hit than Justice League, despite its compromised version of Ayer’s original vision.

After initially revealing that his director’s cut of the movie has “never been seen,” Ayer has now described how far the released film strayed from his initial intentions. Ayer tweeted that his version of Suicide Squad was a “soulful drama” until it was “beaten into a ‘comedy’” by Warner Bros. as a result of two market forces: The overwhelming success of the first Deadpool movie and the relative flop of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, also by Zack Snyder:

The released cut of Suicide Squad didn’t have a lot of soul — but hey, that’s exactly what Ayer’s saying executives took out.

Still, the same issue for any sort of #ReleaseTheAyerCut movement remains: Suicide Squad is already getting a sequel, The Suicide Squad, which is due in theaters next summer from a whole new creative team, including Guardians of the Galaxy architect James Gunn. Warner Bros. almost certainly wants to focus attention on the new movie, with its own approach and cast, rather than remind people of the film that most people didn’t like. With Justice League, they have nothing to lose. With Suicide Squad, they do.

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