Although it's still not entirely clear what role Batman plays in "Suicide Squad," director and writer David Ayer knew from the start he had to be part of the Warner Bros. film.

"If you are going to do a DC comic book movie, you want Batman," the filmmaker told CBR and other journalists during a visit to the Toronto set. "I'm a little bit of a fanboy. I grew up reading Batman comics and there was the old Adam West show. I had the toy car. It's something important to me. I think it's every filmmaker's dream to be able to be given such an iconic asset like that and really see when the suit shows up on set - you have Ben [Affleck] in the suit - it's really like, 'Fuck!' It's really cool."

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Ayer made clear that the inclusion of the Dark Knight was his decision, and not the result of a studio mandate.

Asked whether the iconic hero was in the film's original script, the director replied, "Absolutely. The short answer is, 'Yes.'"

Opening Aug. 5, "Suicide Squad" stars Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ike Barinholtz, Scott Eastwood and Cara Delevingne.