The GOTG director isn’t fussed about continuing on from the previous film.
Hot off the news that Idris Elba will be replacing Will Smith in the role of Deadshot, it has been revealed that James Gunn’s new Suicide Squad movie will be a “total reboot”, devoid of connection from the previous movie. The title “The Suicide Squad” is being used internally, but this is not confirmed to be the final title. This has been a big week for James Gunn, who was recently reinstated to his role as director and writer of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3.
This means that Gunn will be writing and directing both Marvel and DC cinematic efforts in the coming years- meaning there’s plenty to look forward to from the man with such a distinctive style that he was drafted in to write the portions of ‘Infinity War‘ starring the Guardians. “You know what I love about James directing for both Marvel and DC is he has always espoused the view that that which unites comic book and superhero lovers is much greater than that which divides us,” said Peter Safran, producer of ‘The Suicide Squad’. “Because, there’s always been this Marvel/DC rivalry, which he has said, and I agree, is absurd. There’s room for everybody and certainly that which unites us all is far greater than that which divides us, so hopefully they’ll see that you can be both a Marvel and a DC fan and the world won’t spin off its axis.”
The original Suicide Squad was released in 2016 to fairly negative reception, among the criticism were the movie’s bland visual style and awkward, stilted pacing. Hopefully, the 2nd attempt shouldn’t suffer the same fate, as Gunn was the man that gave us a movie starring an ’80s, Dancing, Space Pirate Chris Pratt.
This movie is in production alongside a ‘Joker’ origin movie starring Joaquin Pheonix rather than Jared Leto, so it makes sense that the new movie isn’t sticking strictly to DCEU canon, which seems to be swiftly dismantling itself following the departure of Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck, the actors behind Superman and Batman respectively.
The film is slated for an August 2021 release, putting it ahead of the release of Guardians Vol 3, which is expected to release in 2022.