James Gunn’s ‘The Suicide Squad’ Is A “Total Reboot,” According To Producer Peter Safran
Last week, the best news of the year came with word that Disney and Marvel Studios hadreversed their decision to removeJames Gunnas the director ofGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The filmmaker will return to the franchise that he originated in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but before that, James Gunn will have to make good on his deal to enter the DC Extended Universe withThe Suicide Squad.
The Suicide Squadhas been referred to as the sequel to the 2016 movieSuicide Squad, but according to producerPeter Safran, we shouldn’t be thinking of this movie asSuicide Squad 2at all. While we’ve heard rumblings that this will be a soft reboot of the franchise that brings some bad people together to do some good, Safran callsThe Suicide Squada “total reboot.”
Speaking withJoBlo, Peter Safran first addressed how easy of a transition it will be for James Gunn to jump from DC back to Marvel, and he also confirmed thatThe Suicide Squadwill shoot beforeGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3:
“It was all handled incredibly elegantly, and everybody knows on both sides that Suicide Squad is the priority today. He’ll finish that movie, and then everybody knows that his next film will be Guardians. It’s the best of all possible both worlds, I think, for fans and for James Gunn himself.”
But fans have been wondering exactly what we can expect fromThe Suicide Squad. There were rumblings thatan entire new roster of characterswould be introduced for the movie, but staples likeMargot Robbieas Harley Quinn andWill Smithas Deadshot would still be involved. But now that Will Smithhas been replacedbyIdris Elbaand it’ssomewhatup in the air as to whether Margot Robbiewill actually make an appearance, we’re not sure what to expect. But here’s how Safran described the movie when he was asked how excited fans should be for it:
“First of all, we don’t call itSuicide Squad 2’cause it’s a total reboot. So it’sThe Suicide Squad, and I think people should be extremely excited about it. It’s everything you would hope from a James Gunn script and I think that says a lot and that promises a lot and I know that we will deliver a lot.”
A total reboot, eh? So does that mean this has no narrative connective tissue to the original movie? Does it take place outside of the DC Extended Universe? A more interesting approach would be to have this movie take place in an alternate DC Universe where even characters who have already been introduced are played by different actors. That would be something the Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn’t done yet, and it could become a DC Comics movie trademark to dabble in a variety of DC Comics universes. Either way, it sounds like this will stand alone from what happened in the firstSuicide Squad. Hopefully we’ll hear more soon.
