The development of Gavin O’Connor’s upcoming sequel Suicide Squad 2 has been slow, as Warner Bros.’ slate of DC movies continues to grow. Recently we learned that star Will Smith will film at least two more movies - Bad Boys 3 and Bright 2 - before he begins work on Suicide Squad 2. Meanwhile, Margot Robbie’s popular portrayal of Harley Quinn is set to lead a Birds of Prey movie, and potentially also a Joker/Harley movie. Amid all of this, many DC fans are wondering if Suicide Squad 2 is still on the cards at all.

The first Suicide Squad ended up in something of a strange place between success and failure. It was certainly profitable at the box office, with a $746 million worldwide gross, but the hype built up by its excellent trailers swiftly died off when it was savaged by critics, and ticket sales dropped off steeply after a muscular opening weekend. Then, just to swing things back in the other direction, Suicide Squad went on to win an Oscar - the first DC movie to do so since Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.

Scheduling filming would likely have proved tricky regardless of how well the first movie performed critically and financially, since Smith and Robbie are both very in-demand actors, and Warner Bros. has a huge number of DC projects in development. At this point, there’s no reason to believe that Suicide Squad 2 has been canceled, though it does appear to have been deprioritized. Here’s what we know so far about the sequel - and when to expect it.

  • This Page: Cast Details, Filming Details, and When To Expect Suicide Squad 2 Page 2: Why Suicide Squad 2’s Delay is a Good Thing

Suicide Squad 2 Will Film in Late 2019 At The Earliest

In all likelihood, we probably won’t see Suicide Squad 2 in theaters until summer 2021 - late 2020 at the absolute earliest. The movie was originally supposed to begin filming in March 2018, which has obviously been and gone, and and between Smith’s filming commitments and Birds of Prey being prioritized as the next project for Robbie’s Harley Quinn, Suicide Squad 2 has gravitated towards the back-burner.

O’Connor was supposedly attached to a Green Hornet movie from Paramount Pictures, but there’s been no forward momentum on that since it was announced in 2016, so that may be dead in the water. There’s also been no further news of Atlantic Wall, the Bradley Cooper-starring World War II drama that O’Connor became attached to at around the same time. According to Geeks WorldWide, O’Connor is set to begin filming sports drama The Has-Been (starring Ben Affleck) in October 2018, so Suicide Squad 2’s delay actually works out well for him in that regard.

There is a risk of Suicide Squad losing its director if there are further delays, since he obviously can’t be expected to wait around forever, but for the moment O’Connor still appears to be on track to direct. He’s currently working on the movie’s script alongside 12 Monkeys actor Todd Stashwick and David Bar Katz (The Pest).

Most of the Cast Will Return

As far as we know, the original main cast of Suicide Squad are all set to return in Suicide Squad 2 - possible even Jay Herndandez, whose character El Diablo sacrificed himself at the end of the movie. Earlier this year, Joel Kinnaman shared a photo of himself, Hernandez, and Captain Boomerang actor Jai Courtney at the gym with Suicide Squad’s personal trainer Brendan Johnston. Kinnaman didn’t explicitly say that they were training for Suicide Squad 2 (even if they were, this was a long away off from the movie’s planned production start), and it’s possible they simply became gym buddies after making Suicide Squad. However, given that El Diablo is an Aztec fire demon, the idea of him being “killed” in a fiery explosion was always a little suspect. It wouldn’t be at all surprising if he made a comeback in the sequel - especially since, in an earlier version of the movie, he survived.

The casting lineup isn’t official at this point, but since filming is being scheduled around Robbie and Smith’s commitments, it’s safe to assume that Harley and Deadshot will be back. Given the Suicide Squad’s often-changing lineup in the comics, it also wouldn’t be surprising if the sequel added some new faces - for example, Aquaman villain Black Manta, who is being set up to appear elsewhere in DCEU, according to actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.

Page 2: Why Suicide Squad 2’s Delay is a Good Thing

Suicide Squad’s Mistakes

Suicide Squad’s Achilles heel was a lack of proper development. Director David Ayer wrote the script in six weeks and then basically jumped straight into production, with Warner Bros. eager to get the burgeoning DC Extended Universe off the ground. As a result, the story and characters were still being worked out while the movie was filming, and Suicide Squad was heavily changed in reshoots - with Jared Leto’s role as the Joker cut down to barely a fraction of what it once was. “This thing was a beast,” Ayer said, while explaining how so much ended up on the cutting room floor. “We had over a million and a half feet of footage.”

Compare that to last year’s Wonder Woman, which notably had no deleted scenes and a relatively conservative budget of $150 million (Suicide Squad is said to have cost as much as $250 million after reshoots). Wonder Woman’s script was a long time in development, with many different writers taking a turn at it and experimentation with different settings, like the Crimean War instead of World War 1. “We had more writers working at the same time than I’ve ever done,” producer Charles Roven told Collider. “In the history of all the movies that I’ve done, it never worked out that way before.”

Full screenplay credit eventually went to Allan Heinberg, but the script had major contributions from Zack Snyder, Allan Heinberg, and Jason Fuchs, and Roven said that “[Producer] Geoff Johns and Patty [Jenkins - director] did a tremendous amount of collaboration” as well. Having a lot of cooks in the kitchen doesn’t always work out well for movies, but in Wonder Woman’s case it served up a tightly-produced movie that pleased audiences and critics alike, and gave the DCEU a much-needed win. With all that in mind, Suicide Squad 2 getting a full two years of development before the camera start rolling can only be a good thing.

Suicide Squad 2 Is an Important Project For the DCEU

From what we can tell based on the occasional updates, Warner Bros. seems to be trying to move on from the DCEU’s failures and focus on building new successes. This year will see the release of an Aquaman solo movie, while next year will bring Shazam to the big screen for the first time, debut a new Joker played by Joaquin Phoenix, and continue the DCEU’s one undeniable hit in Wonder Woman 1984. Conversely, we’ve heard very little about Man of Steel 2 or Justice League 2 beyond rumors, and Matt Reeves’ The Batman will reportedly feature a new, younger actor as Bruce Wayne, replacing Ben Affleck.

But, as previously mentioned, Suicide Squad wasn’t a clear-cut failure like, say, Justice League. As with Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, there was actually something of a divide between fan and critic opinions on David Ayer’s movie, and even if it didn’t quite come together as a complete picture, it certainly had plenty of great ingredients. The costumes, character design and make-up were all striking (as evidenced by that Oscar win), and the movie had a strong core cast: Smith as grizzled assassin Deadshot; Robbie juggling comedy and craziness as Harley Quinn; and Viola Davis as the ruthless puppet-master Amanda Waller.

Given proper development, better editing, a better-structured story and perhaps even a few new team members thrown into the mix, Suicide Squad still has the potential to become the DCEU’s own Guardians of the Galaxy - a colorful ensemble of bad guys to contrast with the more clean-cut superheroes. Let’s hope we get to see the Squad’s next outing sooner rather than later.

More: Every DC Movie Supposedly Filming in 2019

  • Aquaman Release Date: 2018-12-21 Shazam! Release Date: 2019-04-05 Joker Release Date: 2019-10-04 Wonder Woman 2 Release Date: 2020-12-25