The Suicide Squad: James Gunn had to do Superman instead

Corentin Palanchini

–Head of Infotainment section

Passionate about Hollywood cinema from the 10s to the 70s, he follows with interest the current evolution of the 7th Art industry, and watches everything that passes in front of him: French comedy, thriller from the 90s, Palme d’Or forgotten or films of the moment. And with the time he has left, series.

The director of “The Suicide Squad” revealed that during their first meeting, the DC / Warner executives asked him to stage a new Superman adventure!

The Suicide Squad: James Gunn had to do Superman instead — Warner Bros.

Arriving at Warner after having been dismissed from Disney, director James Gunn was immediately contacted for a film project adapted from the DC Comics license.

Famous since his two Guardians of the Galaxy films, Gunn is firmly attached to the superheroic genre, which the Warner studio intended to exploit. But on which project? The director confided it to Newsweek :

They first came up to me and said “Superman, Superman, Superman” and I said “I don’t know”. Then they offered me Suicide Squad and I said “no”. And come to think of it, I loved the Suicide Squad comics and asked, “what do I have to keep from the previous movie?”

And Warner was not there four ways:

“They told me ‘you have nothing to keep. You can keep everyone or no one. We love Margot [Robbie, interprète de Harley Quinn], we would love for her to be involved again but it is not a requirement. You can start over if you wish. “

This is how James Gunn found himself directing when he didn’t particularly want to at first. But above all, Warner wanted him for a Superman movie. It is still unclear whether this film, which has already been announced several times without moving forward, would be a Man of steel 2 or a reboot with a new actor replacing Henry Cavill.

A film reboot has already been developed, produced by JJ Abrams and written by Ta-Nehisi Coates (writer and author of Marvel comics), while actor Michael B. Jordan produces for his part a series devoted to Val-Zod alias Black Superman, show to be broadcast on HBO Max.

No Superman for James Gunn therefore, but a rather busy schedule with the special Christmas episode of Guardians of the Galaxy on Disney + in 2022, before the third film of these same Guardians, scheduled for theaters in 2023.

However, he keeps a foothold at DC Comics with the series centered on the character of Peacemaker, seen in The Suicide Squad, currently in theaters.