10 F*ck Ups That Made Suicide Squad A Disaster
3. Attempting To Tie It To A Wider Universe Too Much
As already established, Suicide Squad was initially presented as a wildcard movie, which was the right approach. It meant nobody would have to compare it to Batman v Superman, or Man Of Steel, or any of Zack Snyder's work at all.
It meant Ayer could use his own tone and style, which was necessary to establish that this was a different prospect with different requirements, different rewards, different characters. And fundamentally a different moral universe.
That's why Deadpool was removed from the X-Men mainline - because he doesn't quite jive to the same tune. But Warner Bros tried anyway, because they needed Suicide Squad to "fix" the DCEU (or at least that was the perception): so it needed to be consciously expressed that it was the same universe.
That was a pretty big error.
What Should Have Happened
Like it or not, DC fans, Guardians Of The Galaxy is exactly the model that Suicide Squad should have followed (with a side of Deadpool). Guardians made no effort to tie into the established MCU films (apart from through Easter Eggs and a stinger): and it worked perfectly.
A Guardians film in the spirit of Iron Man wouldn't have worked. A Guardians film in the spirit of Captain America wouldn't have worked. A "traditional" MCU Guardians would NOT have worked. That's what Suicide Squad should have done.