Suicide Squad 2 is called The Suicide Squad, features James Gunn writing and directing, and will arrive in 2021.
It looks like Suicide Squad 2 is a bigger priority for Warner Bros. than we thought. After the project failed to find momentum under director Gavin O'Connor and writer Todd Stashwick, the studio brought in Guardians of the Galaxy writer/director James Gunn to breathe new life into Suicide Squad 2. And it would appear he has. The sequel to the 2016 film now has a brand new title, The Suicide Squad, which would seem to indicate that they're looking to distance themselves a little from the first film. Understandable, as despite it's nearly $750 million global box office haul, it wasn't particularly beloved by critics, and appeared to be the victim of some hasty editing to counter the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice backlash, and perhaps try and capture some of the Guardians of the Galaxy quirkiness.
It...didn't exactly work. But now with Gunn on board as both writer and director, The Suicide Squad will likely be a very different film. Hopefully Gunn does something more than duplicate his Guardians success and delivers something more along the lines of the late '80s action movie with superpowers that the classic Jon Ostrander Suicide Squad comics were.
Suicide Squad 2 Release Date
The Suicide Squad will open on Aug. 6, 2021. That August release date served both the first film and James Gunn's first Guardians of the Galaxy effort well, so this might be a safe bet. The full DC superhero movie release schedule can be found here.
Suicide Squad 2 Cast
Deadline reports that this may feature an entirely new group of villains. Previously, it was expected that at the very least, proven box office draws Will Smith and Margot Robbie would return as Deadshot and Harley Quinn, likely with Jared Leto's controversial Joker in place. But with the studio seemingly trying to distance itself from that version of the Joker, and Robbie's Harley Quinn taking a more central role in Birds of Prey, that may no longer be the case. What's more, Will Smith has departed the project due to "scheduling concerns" and has been replaced by none other than Idris Elba.
However, while Elba was initially on board to actually replace Smith as Deadshot, now it turns out that they're going to drop Deadshot from the script entirely and make Elba a new character, leaving the door open for Smith to return in a future movie. Alongside this news came word that Viola Davis will return as Amanda Waller, Jai Courtney is back as Captain Boomerang, and Joel Kinnaman may be back as Rick Flagg, as well.
But given that Harley Quinn is the most recognizable and marketable character in the Suicide Squad lineup, and the closest thing DC Films has to a Deadpool-type character, I'd be shocked if they didn't include her here. In any case, it's unlikely that any of the other survivors from the first movie would be missed (with the possible exception of Will Smith's Deadshot) and there are plenty of other characters we'd like to see introduced...and then perhaps dispatched in increasingly gruesome fashion.
Collider has word on who some of those other minor characters appearing might be. There will be a gender-swapped female version of Ratcatcher, King Shark (already familiar to fans of The Flash TV series), Polka-Dot Man, and Peacemaker. John Cena has joined the cast, and he might very well be playing Peacemaker. We have more details on that right here.
Suicide Squad 2 Story
Earlier in development, The Wrap reported that Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam may get his introduction in Suicide Squad 2, indicating that the team's mission this time around will be to secure "a weapon of mass destruction," and that the weapon of mass destruction in question would be Black Adam himself. That's from a pre-Gunn version of the project, though, and the movie is now going in a completely different direction.
Instead, expect it to be far more in line with the sensibilities Gunn displayed in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. The question, of course, is is Warner Bros. will follow their own Birds of Prey lead and lean into an R-rating for a violent group of misfits like the Suicide Squad. I'd also be curious to see if the movie takes any inspiration from Gail Simone's Suicide Squad-adjacent Secret Six title, which featured some slightly less expendable baddies and antiheroes in more ridiculous, humorous, and extreme situations than we usually saw in the Suicide Squad books. The excellent animated movie, Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay drew on some of that, and it might be a good starting point for a new film.
We'll update this with more information as it becomes available.
Mike Cecchini is the Editor in Chief of Den of Geek. You can read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @wayoutstuff.