Zack Snyder still plans on doing a director’s cut of Sucker Punch, including the movie’s original ending with Babydoll.
During an interview with Letterboxd, Snyder shared his intentions to release the director’s cut of his 2011 action-fantasy film Sucker Punch sometime in the future. As part of that, he spoke about the movie’s alternate ending, which ended up on the cutting room floor after the studio deemed it “too weird” for the theatrical release.
“I’ve never gotten around to doing the director’s cut. I still plan to at some point,” he said. “But in the original ending, when Babydoll is in the chair in the basement with Blue – she’s already been lobotomized – when the cop shines the light on her, the set breaks apart, and she stands up, and she sings a song on stage.
“She sings, ‘Ooh, Child, things are gonna get easier.’ Blondie, and all the people that have been killed, join in, and it’s the idea that in a weird way, even though she’s lobotomized, she’s kind of stuck in this infinite loop of euphoric victory,” he added. “It’s weirdly not optimistic and optimistic at the same time. That’s kind of what the tone was at the end. We tested it, and the studio thought it was too weird, so we changed it.”
Snyder expressed hope that audiences will “get to see it at some point,” even though the movie is now over a decade removed from its initial release in theaters.
Sucker Punch received generally negative reviews and underperformed at the box office, raising $89.7 million worldwide on a budget of $83 million. It is possible the feature suffered because Snyder cut several crucial scenes to satisfy the MPAA and secure a PG-13 rating for its theatrical release, contrary to his original vision. The Blu-ray release of Sucker Punch included an R-rated extended cut of the movie, but that should not be mistaken for the unreleased director’s cut.
“[Sucker Punch] was the first time where I really faced, like, a true radical restructuring of the film for it to be more commercial,” Snyder told Vanity Fair in an interview in 2021, breaking down his illustrious career. “And there is a director’s cut of that movie that has yet to be released. I’ll say that out loud.”
Snyder has had several projects rejected by Warner Bros. over the years, with some remaining on the shelf and others moving forward with alternative studios. He also has some new releases on the horizon, including two Rebel Moon movies for Netflix, which will both get extended director’s cuts at some point.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.