6 Lessons That Warner Bros. Must Learn For Suicide Squad 2

The original Suicide Squad script was reportedly written in just six weeks. This is unsurprising, considering the rough-around-the-edges feel of the final product.

The sequel needs to have decent dialogue if it wants to win over critics. The original shot itself in the foot with the opening montage for each character showing their entire backstory, instead of slowly letting each member of the squad reveal their backstories as El Diablo does (sort-of) in the third act. This prevented character development.

That being said, a montage is infinitely preferable to “THIS IS KATANA. SHE’S GOT MY BACK… I WOULD ADVISE NOT GETTING KILLED BY HER, HER SWORD TRAPS THE SOULS OF ITS VICTIMS.”

Going forward, it might be better to slim down the squad so that characters such as Katana, who offer absolutely nothing throughout the film, are omitted. It’s simply not practical to include so many different side characters in one film. The Avengers was a team of six, with four of those six already having had solo films. Suicide Squad has nine members (eleven including Joker and Waller), none of which had been previously established in the DCEU.

The film would function much better with four or five members who the audience can build rapport with rather than spending that energy just trying to remember who Katana is and why her sword traps the souls of its victims (and why she was in the film at all). Using a smaller setting, such as the Assault On Arkham storyline (in Arkham Asylum) could help audiences build rapport with a few characters, increasing the engagement of the film.