Suicide Squad's Batman is "freaking scary" says director David Ayer

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Every trailer for Suicide Squad has teased the appearance of Ben Affleck's Batman, and while the focus of the film will undoubtedly be on the supervillains the Dark Knight's inclusion is one of the more intriguing aspects of the film. David Ayer has revealed that he "begged" Warner Bros. for the opportunity to use Batman, and the director has some big plans for DC's most iconic character:

"All the Batman movies have been from Batman’s point of view", Ayer told Collider. "He’s the good guy. He’s the hero of his own movie in all the movies we’ve seen. If you look at what Bruce Wayne has done in creating the Batman persona, his idea was to terrorize criminals. It’s sort of psychological warfare against criminals. This wraith that comes in the night and attacks and pulls criminals from society. For the first time, we’re seeing Batman from the point of view of the criminals and he’s freaking scary".

This is a really great quote from Ayer; Previous Batman films have only given us a small glimpse at how villains view Gotham's vigilante, so the prospect of delving into that perspective is exciting. Ayer also offered some reassurance to those who may be worried that the various snippets of Batman in action we've seen in Suicide Squad's marketing have spoiled the surprise: 

"We have had some material exposed by virtue of being out on the streets and working out on the streets, but it’s a sliver. It’s a fragment and it’s all out of context. For me it’s a lot of fun just to see how people try and assemble these pieces because in their minds, they’re a much larger piece of the film than they’re actually saying. But it takes days and days to shoot a scene so it’s how does all this fit together? That’s the big surprise".

Directed by David Ayer and starring Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, and Joel Kinnaman, Suicide Squad will open in the UK and US on August 5, 2016.

Images: Warner Bros.

Amon Warmann
Amon Warmann

Amon is a contributing editor and columnist for Empire magazine, but is also a Film and TV writer for GamesRadar+, Total Film, and others. He has also written for NME, Composer Mag, and more, along with being a film critic for TalkSport. He is also the co-host of the Fade to Black Podcast, and a video mashup creator. Can also do a pretty good Bane impersonation.