James Gunn is currently hard at work helmingThe Suicide Squadfor Warner Bros., and according to the filmmaker, directing this movie in particular for the studio was his choice. After his firing from Disney which ultimately turned out to be temporary, Gunn had been approached by Warner Bros. to lend his creative talents to a new DC project. In a recent story posted to Gunn’s official Instagram account, the filmmaker has since claimed that the choice was his, leaving him to essentially pick any DC-based property he wanted to make a movie about. “I was basically offered whatever I wanted. I most wanted to doSquad,” Gunn bluntly states in the post.
Certainly, following upSuicide Squadis a very interesting choice forJames Gunn. While profitable, the 2016 movie from director and writer David Ayer received mostly negative reviews, earning a paltry 27% Rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While Margot Robbie will reprise the role of Harley Quinn in the upcomingBirds of Preyspin-off, it would seem that a straight sequel toSuicide Squadwas probably not going to happen without the inclusion of someone like Gunn on the project. Perhaps Gunn saw the potential the titular team of antiheroes had to offer, as his new take on the story will bring back some returning characters while also introducing many new ones.
Set to return from the firstDC Comics movieforThe Suicide Squadare Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, and Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag. It will also introduce David Dastmalchian, Daniela Melchior, Idris Elba, John Cena, Storm Reid, Flula Borg, Nathan Fillion, Peter Capaldi, Pete Davidson, Alice Braga, Sean Gunn, Michael Rooker, and Taika Waititi in new roles. While the movie is set in the DCEU, Gunn has insisted that it is “not a sequel” to the 2016 version. Although it does include some returning characters, the movie will reportedly focus on a newSuicide Squadstory rather than directly following what happened in the prior film.
Gunn’s journey toThe Suicide Squadbegan when thefilmmaker was fired by Disneyas a result of controversial jokes posted to his Twitter account many years prior. He was scooped up by Warner Bros. before long to lend his talents to a DC project, and in the meantime, the folks at Disney began to reconsider their hasty decision. Gunn was later officially brought back into the fold at Disney to develop anotherGuardians of the Galaxymovie for Marvel, but the project will need to wait for now as he had already committed toThe Suicide Squad.
It’s interesting to think about how Gunn would have tackled some other DC stories, as it appears almost anything was on the table. Maybe doing a movie about Superman or Batman may have been too simple, as Gunn seems to prefer working with ensemble casts. We’ll see howThe Suicide Squadturns out when it’s released on Jun 02, 2025. This news comes to us fromJames Gunn on Instagram.
