James Gunn Is Making More DC Superhero Movies, Our Scoop Confirmed
Here's what's being publicly said now about James Gunn's future plans at DC.
This article is more than 2 years old
Whichever members of Amanda Waller’s (Viola Davis) Task Force X survive The Suicide Squad, we now know for sure that the film’s architect–writer/director James Gunn–will be returning to help adapt more DC Comics superheroes to the screen.
Last month, we exclusively reported that a trusted inside source let us know Warner Bros. wanted James Gunn to return not only for a third Suicide Squad film, but other HBO Max series based on characters from the franchise, like the upcoming Peacemaker series starring John Cena as the eponymous vigilante. Thanks to a new story from The Hollywood Reporter, our scoop has now been confirmed. THR spoke to DC Films president Walter Hamada, who made it clear that he and James Gunn “have more stuff planned.”
What could some of that “more stuff” be? One likely possibility seems to be another Suicide Squad spin-off series. As reported by Heroic Hollywood on Tuesday, James Gunn fell just a little short of confirming something else was in the works. While on a flight, Gunn invited fans to ask questions on his Instagram page. When a fan asked if there were any other spin-off series being developed, Gun responded with an exaggerated “Maaaaaaaaybe” followed by a series of teeth-gritting and shrug emojis.
The news of James Gunn’s plans to do more with Warner Bros. goes along with a revealing New York Times interview from July in which the director said that the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will likely be the last film he works on for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He went on to express admiration for some of DC’s current and future movies, in particular singling out 2019’s Joker and Matt Reeves’s upcoming The Batman.
As impressed as James Gunn is with the talent involved with DC’s movies, that talent seems equally inspired by him. At Monday’s premiere of The Suicide Squad, Margot Robbie — who plays Harley Quinn in the film as well as in its predecessors and 2020’s Birds of Prey — told THR that, after reading the script, she would’ve given “a straight-up ‘no'” if anyone but Gunn was in the director’s chair. John Cena, who plays Peacemaker in the film, told THR Gunn’s pitch about the upcoming Peacemaker was so good that Cena said yes to it before even knowing it was a Peacemaker series.
As for James Gunn’s first DC project after The Suicide Squad, the first three episodes of the HBO Max series Peacemaker premiere on Sunday January 16, 2022. Gunn wrote the series after The Suicide Squad wrapped and directed five of the eight episodes. There are a lot of unknowns about the series, including whether or not it’s a miniseries, or when the story is set in relation to The Suicide Squad. A few actors from the film — including Steve Agee as John Economos, Jennifer Holland as NSA Agent Emilia Harcourt, and Freddie Stroma as Vigilante — are set to reprise their movie roles in the series. In spite of the violence reported on in The Suicide Squad, in July Cena told Entertainment Weekly that fans should expect Peacemaker to “turn up the volume” on everything from the film.
The Suicide Squad releases in theaters tonight and on HBO Max at 7 PM Eastern time.
