James Gunn's Suicide Squad 2 Might Not Even Be A Sequel
And the reason why director Gavin O'Connor quit.
In the wake of the whirlwind that's been whipped up by the announcement that James Gunn might be given the reins for Suicide Squad 2 (as well as writing it), one key bit of information has gone a little under-reported.
While everyone is inevitably excited and Dave Bautista's enthusiasm to join him has kicked off reams of speculation, it seems that Gunn might not be forced to make his movie into a sequel at all. In fact, he might have more free reign to start again entirely if he sees fit.
That's according to Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter, who clarified that it's unclear at the minute whether that will mean a total recasting...
Having him involved at all is a huge deal for Warner Bros and the former DCEU - and he's really well suited to the material, actually - and it might be even better if he's able to recast the whole thing. That said, it would be a mistake to cast out Viola Davis as Amanda Waller and some of the cast do genuinely deserve more times in their roles (not to mention, some characters have ongoing duties in other linked movies and presumably couldn't be recast at all). So he might not even get the chance of complete carte blanche.
Meanwhile, Variety's Justin Kroll has explained why Gavin O'Connor - the director who had been attached to the sequel - left the project. Apparently, it was all down to him writing something too close to another ongoing DC movie project:
So, it's a shame for O'Connor, but at least he hasn't been unceremoniously dumped from the project to accommodate Gunn. And at least he gets to work with Ben Affleck again on The Has-Been.