Home Entertainment James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is completely done, but won’t be released early

James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is completely done, but won’t be released early

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If there’s one thing we’ve had to get used to over the last year and a bit of a global pandemic (besides the actual pandemic, of course) it’s that movie release dates mean nothing. Thanks to cinemas being shut down everywhere due to COVID-19, then opening up only for the area to be hit by additional waves of infections, and then cinemas shutting down again, etc etc, we’ve seen many a movie flip-flop all over the place as studios attempt the balancing act of getting movies out as quickly as possible while it being safe enough to actually pull in a big enough audience.

Well, writer/director James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) and the folks at Warner Bros. are no longer flipping and flopping when it comes to The Suicide Squad. The upcoming DC Comics supervillain ensemble sequel/soft reboot is currently scheduled for release on 6 August after numerous delays. Delays that had absolutely nothing to do with the film production though. In fact, production ran so silky smooth that The Suicide Squad is that super rare tentpole blockbuster that didn’t require a single additional pick-up (aka reshoots filmed in response to test screenings), as Gunn revealed on Twitter.

We completely finished the movie this week, VFX and all. Can’t wait for you all to see it. It is unusual [to have it done this early] but I always planned to have it done by now. What’s more unusual is that we didn’t do a single shot of pickups or any post-production shooting. Outside of Chris Nolan, that almost never happens, if at all, on tentpole superhero films.

Combine that with COVID-19 pushing back the release date and it means that Gunn and co are sitting on a fully completed movie four months ahead of release, but they won’t move it up earlier. And there’s a very good reason for that.

Yes, it comes out Aug 6. There’s nothing left to do other than me looking at marketing & toys, doing publicity & waiting for the world to heal just a little more so a larger number of people can see it safely in theaters, where it is intended to be seen.

When asked by somebody whether Gunn will consider pulling a Marvel and surprise dropping this early (which I assume is a reference to the trailer for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings dropping early this week), the filmmaker reiterated his stance.

Nope. I want as many people to be able to see it in theaters as possible.

From a purely artistic point of view, it’s easy to see why Gunn wants this. These types of movies just naturally play better on a big screen, which is what they were designed for. And from a business point of view, of course this makes perfect sense. The Suicide Squad, like all WB’s 2021 releases, will get a simultaneous day-and-date debut on HBO Max, but as WB’s recently released Godzilla vs. Kong showed, people want to go back to watching movies in cinemas even if they can watch them at home. And that means big money again for the first time in over a year.

Godzilla vs. Kong is currently set to pass the $400 million mark globally any time this week, and if it does, it will become the highest earning film since Bad Boys For Life released in early 2020. On a normal year, these would be middling numbers at best, but there just hasn’t been enough open venues and willing attendants for movies to make big money. Maybe by waiting a little bit longer, The Suicide Squad can properly fix that.

The R-rated The Suicide Squad sees the return of Margot Robbie, Jai Courtney, Joel Kinnaman, and Viola Davis from the divisive 2016 film. However, they are joined by an all new cast featuring Idris Elba, John Cena, Alice Braga, Peter Capaldi, Daniela Melchior, David Dastmalchian, Michael Rooker, Pete Davidson, Peter Capaldi, Joaquín Cosio, Juan Diego Botto, Nathan Fillion, Storm Reid, Steve Agee, Sean Gunn, Mayling Ng, Flula Borg, Jennifer Holland, Tinashe Kajese, and Sylvester Stallone.

Last Updated: April 22, 2021

2 Comments

  1. Coming to HBO Max and your favourite torrent site….

    Reply

  2. Hyperstorm

    April 23, 2021 at 03:28

    I am that one guy you heard about who actually sorta likes the first one as long so as it lives up to the that one I’ll be happy.

    Reply

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