MOVIE NEWS – It seems, that James Gunn is extremely close to direct the next Suicide Squad. He is actually in talks with Warner Bros. to be part of the project. All this was expected, as the studio asked the director to write this follow up to the 2016 hit blockbuster, which was unfortunately a rather bad movie. It will be his first time in the director’s chair since directing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 for Marvel back in 2017.

As it is well known by now: James Gunn was famously fired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2018, after a few old tweets resurfaced that joked about some inappropriate topics. While Gunn and Marvel tried to have the filmmaker reestablished, Disney chose to not him involved with the company any longer. It wasn’t long before DC and Warner Bros. came calling, hiring Gunn to write the Suicide Squad sequel script.

Now Warner Bros. has announced that the title is officially The Suicide Squad, which also means that this isn’t really a sequel. It will be a reboot that brings in mainly new characters, with open space for a few to return from David Ayer’s first outing. What’s probable, that Margot Robbie will be back as Harley Quinn, and we could see Will Smith reprising his role as Deadshot, but it seems that everyone else is out, which includes Jared Leto as the Joker, because of some personal beef between the Leto and Gunn.

The Suicide Squad is getting the same exact platform release as the original, and will arrive in theaters August 6, 2021. The not-really-sequel will be James Gunn’s next directing effort. DC is considering this a ‘relaunch’ of the franchise brand, and it’s unclear if this will take place in the same old DCEU that housed the first one. The original movie starred Deadshot, Harley Quinn, the Joker, Captain Boomerang and Killer Croc, some of which were forced to form a secret government squad of mercenary soldiers. If they lived through their mission, they would get some time knocked off their jail sentence.

James Gunn is planning to take his script in a whole new direction, but it’s unclear exactly what that means at this time. It’s possible that this could be R-rated, like DC’s upcoming standalone Joker movie starring Joaquin Phoenix. It will feature mostly new characters and actors. The movie will very much be rooted in James Gunn‘s personal vibe as a filmmaker, so it could adhere close to Guardians of the Galaxy.