Following his firing as writer/director of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3, James Gunn was quickly scooped up by Warner Bros. who tapped Gunn to write and direct THE SUICIDE SQUAD, the sequel to the original film directed by David Ayer. Production on the project kicked off last year and continued over the winter, and James Gunn took to Instagram to announce a wrap on THE SUICIDE SQUAD, while also noting the extremely personal losses he suffered along the way.
THE SUICIDE SQUAD stars Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Jai Courtney, and Viola Davis reprising their roles from the first film, with new additions such as Idris Elba, John Cena, Nathan Fillion, David Dastmalchian, Michael Rooker, Storm Reid, Taika Waititi, Peter Capaldi, and more. Jai Courtney has previously spoken of Gunn's "tonally different" take on the franchise.
I don’t think it’s going to be weird. It’s kind of funny that we’re getting it up to go again and there’s a bunch of new people and a bunch of old people, too. It’s going to be different, for sure, but I think everyone’s welcoming that challenge and welcoming the new energy in. I loved David, I loved working with David, I’d work with David again in a heartbeat. But Gunn, too, is quite prolific and really, obviously, does know what he’s doing. I’m excited to see what he brings to it. It’s going to be tonally different but very cool as well. The world has evolved from where we were at at that point; he’s going to have his own take on it, and it’s going to be great.
THE SUICIDE SQUAD is slated for an August 6, 2021 release, and once Gunn completes work on the film, it's expected that he'll shift his attentions back to GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3.