Suicide Squad 2 Characters Will Kill Each Other, Reveals James Gunn

3 years ago

Suicide Squad 2 Characters Will Kill Each Other, Reveals James Gunn

Director James Gunn revealed that Suicide Squad 2 characters will kill each other off in the sequel to David Ayer's original villain team up.

Director James Gunn has revealed that in The Suicide Squad, team members will not only be killing enemies, but they'll be at each other's throats, too. Gunn was tapped to direct the sequel after David Ayer directed the original Suicide Squad in 2016. Gunn, who famously directed the first two Guardians of the Galaxy films, was dismissed by Disney after controversial tweets surfaced. Warner Bros. swooped in and acquired him to direct the film and while The Suicide Squad is not a direct sequel, it has some elements of the original.

The original Suicide Squad featured iconic characters like Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Joker (Jared Leto), and Deadshot (Will Smith). The film was a massive box office success, but was received rather poorly. Gunn's vision is looking to change that, retaining the popular characters of the original, like Harley Quinn and Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), while bringing on new faces like Idris Elba, John Cena, and Pete Davidson. Filming for the sequel wrapped in February of this year, avoiding any delays that might have occurred due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a new exclusive with Empire, Gunn revealed some of the ways in which his sequel will differ from Ayer's original. The director revealed in the interview that the characters are not only trying to kill their enemies, but they just might end up killing each other, too. The first movie was a little light on the inter-squad violence, but Gunn revealed that DC gave him permission to do pretty much anything he wanted:

But in The Suicide Squad, some of the characters end up being good, some end up being terrible. They don’t just get in fights and say they’re going to kill each other, they actually do get in fights and kill each other. You really don’t know who’s going to live and who’s going to die. I was given full freedom to kill anyone – and I mean anyone – by DC.
Suicide Squad, naturally, attracted much attention when it was released in 2016, but it still wasn't exactly what fans wanted. With violent superhero films like Deadpool floating around, it would have been less of a risk if Warner Bros. went in the same direction with Ayer's film. Instead, they stuck with a PG-13 rating, one that limited what the film could do with its psychotic cast of characters. This included mining the much hyped tension between the gang itself, with fans wanting to see characters like Joker and Harley Quinn going toe-to-toe with any of their fellow villains.
Fans expecting a violent, villain filled extravaganza were instead met with a middling PG-13 version of beloved anti-heroes. Gunn seems to be looking to change that with his upcoming film, which is apparently heavily R-rated. All signs are pointing to success. The film looks grittier and, as mentioned above, Gunn is promising the violent mayhem fans were looking for with the first one. Gunn is no stranger to team-ups either: he juggled Guardians of the Galaxy skillfully and with much success. While The Suicide Squad is a bit different than Guardians, Gunn seems to be hitting all the marks that the first one may have missed.