First, Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was poorly received by critics (and underperformed at the box office, but lofty studio standards).
Meanwhile, across town, joke-packed comic-book adaptations like Deadpool and the MCU movies were raking in the dough, and Warner Bros. panicked.
There’s a lot to unpack here, starting with the fact that David Ayer set out to make a “soulful drama” out of Suicide Squad, but the team at Warner Bros. at the time reacted to two seismic events.