Exclusive: James Gunn Returning For Suicide Squad 3 And More Spinoff Shows
We've exclusively learned plans for James Gunn to make Suicide Squad 3 and HBO Max spinoff shows.
Update November 2022: This went even beyond a Suicide Squad 3 and ended up with James Gunn just running the whole DC Universe. He is bringing back Peacemaker for a Season 2 and also a spinoff series Waller. Oh, and he’s have a hand in everything else DC is doing as well.
Filmmaker James Gunn is in one of the more interesting positions when it comes to creators for superhero movies. Generally speaking, there is a divide between DC and Marvel. They’re competitors for similar audiences, like Pepsi and Coke. Now, we have Gunn, who is actively creating popular movies on both sides. And while he’s not the only person to have ever created something for both studios, his work on Guardians of the Galaxy for Marvel and now The Suicide Squad for DC is something special that makes everyone curious about where he’ll go from here. Once the third Guardians movie releases, will he stick with Marvel? Hop back to DC for Suicide Squad 3? Thanks to one of our trusted and proven inside sources, we have big news on Warner Bros. plans for the creative.
We have learned that Warner Bros wants James Gunn to direct a Suicide Squad 3 project, and only James Gunn. They also want him to be in charge of more shows focusing on other Suicide Squad characters. Currently, he’s working on Peacemaker, an HBO Max series for John Cena’s character. While our source didn’t share whether the studio had specific characters in mind for more HBO Max spinoff series, it sounds like Gunn will be able to make that decision for himself.
Previously, he was working on scripts for a Peacemaker series on his own, just for fun. Then, the studio came to him and asked if he had any ideas for a series, and he pitched them what he’d already been doing. They ordered the project straight to series a month later. If past is prologue, then it sounds like DC is willing to take some leaps and bet on James Gunn, giving him the kind of creative freedom that could be particularly tempting for a creator like him.
It seems almost impossible to guess what James Gunn would choose to do for another HBO Max series after Peacemaker. While The Suicide Squad doesn’t release in theaters until August 6, 2021, the trailers have already shown us that this movie is packed full of wild and interesting characters. We know that the director is good at developing fun-to-watch characters after seeing his work for Marvel on Guardians. Will he want to make an HBO series following King Shark?
That may be an unconventional choice, but hey. This is the director that got Vin Diesel to voice a tree that says only one word and made that one of his most popular characters. Pitching the idea of Groot must have been awkward and hard to get people on board for. Put nothing past James Gunn and his creative choices. Still, probably not King Shark. Probably.
Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn was a stand out in the first Suicide Squad movie, is lighting up The Suicide Squad trailer, and is sure to end up prominently featured in Suicide Squad 3 when they start working on it. She’s a natural fan-favorite for an HBO Max series, but maybe that makes her too obvious a choice for James Gunn. Still, he has said that he loves writing her character. In fact, he was inspired by her work and wrote what he considers to be his best action sequence specifically to take advantage of what Margot Robbie can do. That sounds like something that could inspire him to create a spinoff series fans would love to see happen.
It remains to be seen what other characters might inspire James Gunn enough to create their own spinoff series, but it wouldn’t be surprising to learn if he already had some top choices in mind. Hopefully, he’ll find the Suicide Squad characters inspiring enough to stay with DC for a while, give us Suicide Squad 3, and as many spinoff series as he feels excited to pursue.
