James Gunn Won’t Reveal Whether The Suicide Squad Is A Reboot Or Sequel

Deadshot and Harley in Suicide Squad

The superhero genre has been dominating the moviemaking industry for the past few years, and is showing no signs of slowing down. And with so many shared universes and properties arriving in theaters, plenty of film professionals have worked on rivaling franchises. That's certainly the case with Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, who will write and helm The Suicide Squad for DC before completing his signature Marvel trilogy.

Cinephiles and comic book fans are eager to see what James Gunn will do with the motley crew of DC villains, and how it'll relate to David Ayer's original movie. Early reports for the developing blockbuster indicate it would be a reboot, rather than a direct sequel to Suicide Squad. But Gunn hasn't confirmed this, and is remaining cagey about the DC project. When recently asked if The Suicide Squad was a reboot, he said:

You know, these terms are all so narrow. There’s so many terms. It is what it is. You’ll see in two years, when it comes out.

The suspense, it's killing me. It looks like James Gunn is going to keep mum about The Suicide Squad until we're closer to its release. But considering his involvement in the DCEU, the conversation about the movie should only grow in intensity in the coming months.

James Gunn's comments to Entertainment Tonight might not provide any concrete answers, but you can't blame the director for keeping tight-lipped about the upcoming blockbuster. The Suicide Squad isn't set to arrive in theaters until August of 2021, so we're still over two years away from the director's DC debut. So perhaps Gunn wants to actually work on the upcoming movie before making announcements regarding its contents.

Rumors about The Suicide Squad being a reboot started a few months ago. DCEU producer Peter Safran did an interview, where he discussed the villain-centric blockbuster, saying:

First of all, we don’t call it Suicide Squad 2 'cause it’s a total reboot, so it's The 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.

This comment gained more steam when the casting for The Suicide Squad became public. When Idris Elba was announced to be joining the cast, it was originally reported that he was replacing Will Smith as Deadshot. What's more, Gunn is planning on bringing in new characters to the titular team, seemingly supporting the idea of a reboot.

Related: The Suicide Squad: Who Should And Shouldn’t Return

But then it was revealed that Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, and Joel Kinnaman would be reprising their roles from the original Suicide Squad. Plus, it turned out that Idris Elba would be playing a new character, not Deadshot. As such, there's been plenty of confusion regarding just what James Gunn is planning for The Suicide Squad. Unfortunately, it looks like we'll have to wait until Gunn is ready to reveal information about his DC movie.

The Suicide Squad is currently set to arrive in theaters on August 6th, 2021. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

Corey Chichizola
Movies Editor

Corey was born and raised in New Jersey. Graduated with degrees theater and literature from Ramapo College of New Jersey. After working in administrative theater for a year in New York, he started as the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. He's since been able to work himself up to reviews, phoners, and press junkets-- and is now able to appear on camera with some of his favorite actors... just not as he would have predicted as a kid. He's particularly proud of covering horror franchises like Scream and Halloween, as well as movie musicals like West Side Story. Favorite interviews include Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more.