Looking At What’s Next for The Suicide Squad

Let’s get the big questions out of the way right at the start. Did you see The Suicide Squad? If yes, was it at theaters or watching HBO Max?

While the movie pleased critics and fan reaction has been positive, Warner Bros. and DC’s The Suicide Squad opened to a soft $26.5 million thanks to concerns from people about the Delta variant and the offered hybrid theatrical-home launch. Overseas, the movie added $35 million from 71 markets for a foreign finish of $45.7 million and global take of $72.2 million. The Suicide Squad was projected to do $30 million by Warners.

“This weekend’s performance of The Suicide Squad shows yet again the unpredictability of a theatrical marketplace whose success rises, and falls based on an ever-evolving set of disparate factors including not only the usual film-centric metrics, but also the impact of concerning pandemic news on consumer behavior,” says Comscore’s Paul Dergarabedian. “Of course, the day-and-date release of any film has implications, but in today’s environment it’s too simplistic to analyze a movie’s performance based on that variable alone since there are so many moving parts.”

James Gunn directed the standalone sequel (more on that below) about DC’s team of antiheroes that featured a cast filled with Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Sylvester Stallone, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney and Peter Capaldi.

So we have a movie that’s well received across the board but a weak box office. What are we to do?

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter Gunn shared that he’s not quite done with DC yet. The director said, “Remember, we’re dealing with a lot of different things. There are a lot of different things happening at the same time. (Laughs.) You’ve got the Peacemaker show, obviously, and then there are other projects. So we’ll see what happens. We’re always talking about different things, too, so there’s a lot of dreaming going on and dreaming is one of the most fun parts of moviemaking. We’re dreaming about the different possibilities, and we’re trying to find the right dream that can actually weave itself into reality in the proper way.”

He likes the word “different”, doesn’t he?

Here’s what we know and some information for context. Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is indeed a sequel to 2016’s Suicide Squad but it’s classified as a “standalone sequel”, something that sits in the limbo between sequel and reboot.

While nothing has been announced, Gunn has said he’s open to making a sequel to The Suicide Squad. “I’ve had ideas, actually,” he told Entertainment Weekly recently. “If I did a sequel, it’s not like, ‘Hey, let’s assemble another team and let’s do this!’ It would be very different.”

There’s that word again.

As mentioned above, we have the Peacemaker series coming to HBO Max next January that brings back John Cena to the character along with actors Steve Agee and Jennifer Holland, who will also reprise their roles from the movie as aides to Amanda Waller. Also joining the cast are Robert Patrick as Auggie Smith, Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo, and Freddie Stroma as The Vigilante/Adrian Chase.

Bottomline, Warner and DC need these types of victories. Timing hurt the box office but we can safely assume this movie would have done solid numbers pre-covid. Having Gunn involved will only help them and green lighting another chapter for The Suicide Squad would be a good thing. The nature of the team lends itself to creative storytelling and using characters that are fresh for audiences opens the door for spinoffs on both the big and small screen.

Thoughts?