Look like it’s all official apart from the press release: Gavin O’Connor will be taking the reins of Suicide Squad 2! Both Variety and Deadline are reporting that the American filmmaker has been tapped by Warner Bros. to helm the upcoming sequel to last year’s DC Comics villain ensemble, with Variety indicating that he will be penning the script as well. This approach follows suit with the first film which was also written and directed by David Ayer.
Ayer was originally supposed to return for the sequel, but then exited to instead tackle Gotham City Sirens, another entry in WB’s DC Comics Extended Universe which would see his Suicide Squad star Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) reportedly teaming up with Catwoman and Poison Ivy for some all-female hijinks. For a while there it looked like WB would actually make the very left-field pick of having Mel Gibson step in as Ayer’s replacement, but things eventually didn’t pan out between the studio and (sometimes controversial) actor/director. Jaume Collet-Sera, Daniel Espinosa, Ruben Fleischer, and Jonathan Levine’s names soon popped up as contenders with many feeling that Collet-Sera was probably the favourite having had a string of films for WB (Non-Stop, Run the Night and Unknown) and just coming off the buzz of The Shallows at the time.
But it appears that WB has instead looked to another in-house filmmaker in Gavin O’Connor who most recently directed Batman himself, Ben Affleck, in The Accountant and will be returning for the 2015 action thriller’s sequel as well. Before that the 52-year old O’Connor had been paying his dues, steadily working behind the camera since 1994 with small successes like Miracle with Kurt Russell and Pride and Glory with Edward Norton and Colin Farrell. It was in 2011 though where he really grabbed people’s attention though with Warrior, the mixed martial arts drama starring Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton, which seriously launched the latter’s career.
In 2015, he would join Edgerton again and step in at the last minute to try and rescue the utter train wreck of a production that was the western Jane Got a Gun, which had gone through a slew of directors and stars. The operative word there was “try” as the patchwork movie turned out less than ideal. I guess the same could be said about The Accountant, but it definitely wasn’t O’Connor’s fault. He and Affleck definitely did their bits, delivering some pretty good action beats, but the film’s script got undone a bit by it’s sillier larks. It was still a solid film though.
And I guess that’s what WB want now: a solid Suicide Squad film. The 2016 original made $745 million at the box office but got ripped to shreds by critics. General audiences weren’t as harsh, but they still weren’t singing the film’s praises from the rooftops either. It’s confirmed that alongside Robbie’s Harley Quinn, Will Smith and Jared Leto would be returning as Deadshot and the Joker respectively. If the latter could get more than just 10 minutes of screen time this time around, that would be great.
Due to the busy schedule of these stars though, it was originally expected that production on Suicide Squad 2 wouldn’t start until late 2018, but that may just be changing now. It’s already been confirmed that Shazam! will be the next film on WB’s DC Comics slate to go into production and Suicide Squad 2 may just be hot on its heels.
Last Updated: September 7, 2017
Original Heretic
September 7, 2017 at 11:07
Wow…. WB and DC are seriously grasping in almost every movie they make. Not knocking O’Connor at all here, I’m more referring to the fact that they keep on finding someone else for their projects.
And on another note, I read the other day that there’s a rumour that one of the front runners to play Shazam is John Cena. Like, REALLY?!? I just can’t see that.
I_am_Duffman!
September 7, 2017 at 11:26
I really enjoyed the accountant. One of the movies I enjoyed most during the year.
But I agree, that John Cena rumour. That’s just painful, although I have to confess that I haven’t seen any of his movies.
Original Heretic
September 7, 2017 at 11:29
There was a mockumentary I watched recently where he played a bit role. Tour de Pharmacy. That’s REALLY worth the watch.
But he wasn’t the lead.
I don’t see him as a lead actor, more of a supporting guy.
I_am_Duffman!
September 7, 2017 at 11:38
I watched Popstar: Never Stop Stopping and immediately put Tour de Pharmacy on my watch list. Didn’t realize it was out yet, so quite pleased that I have something to watch tonight.
Kervyn Cloete
September 7, 2017 at 14:25
Cena is actually surprisingly decent on screen, but that’s usually in roles that requires some kinda self-effacing comedy element. He doesn’t do serious well.
The Shazam casting miiiiiight work though purely because he’s essentially supposed to be a goofy kid in an adult’s musclebound body. So him acting a bit like a doofus could actually be in character.
Original Heretic
September 7, 2017 at 14:35
I can’t see him carrying whole movie, not effectively anyway. I’ve seen some of his action movies and, as you say, he doesn’t so serious well. He ends up looking constipated.
And with Dwayne Johnson already cast as Black Adam, it would end up being a WWE showdown.
DC needs to learn that you don’t need big names for the big roles. They cast a lesser known Gadot as a huge character, and she was great.
Then you get Margot Robbie and Will Smith is SS. Fuck me sideways…
Kervyn Cloete
September 7, 2017 at 14:49
Well Robbie and Smith were about the only redeemable things about SS. So it’s not whether the person is well-known or not, it’s simply a matter of whether they suit the role. Gadot worked because she nailed the character, not because people don’t know her outside of some Fast and Furious movies.
Casting Shazam is going to be one of the hardest things WB will ever do. You need somebody who can physically stand up to The Rock (and dwarf Cavill’s Superman) but who can also express a childlike innocence. There aren’t many actors out there in Hollywood who can do that. Personally I think if they could pile on even more muscle, Armie Hammer or John Krasinski could be decent picks.
But yes, a WWE standoff would be really silly.
Original Heretic
September 7, 2017 at 15:02
Ugh, god no, Robbie and Smith just didn’t do it for me in SS. Robbie especially was bad. Yes, Harley is supposed to be rather over the top, but I found her downright annoying in the movie.
Smith, he was the pretty much the same he always is. Solid actor, but I really don’t believe he suited the role.
And yeah, Shazam is gonna be a tough one to cast. Someone big and who can act innocent very well. I know it’s pretty out there, but imagine if Jason Segel piled some muscle on. He’s big, he was goofy and innocent in HIMYM.
Magoo
September 7, 2017 at 13:14
I have hope for SS2. If WB puts their collective brains into dissecting what went wrong with the first one and what’s boding well for other superhero films at the moment, they still have a great cast and story.
Kervyn Cloete
September 7, 2017 at 14:27
The concept of SS is great one, but I think WB messed up with the choice of David Ayer on the first film. I’ve loved most of the things he’s done, but tonally he does grim and gritty R-rated stuff. He’s not a funny comic book movie kinda guy.
But then that one trailer came out that sold the movie as exactly that and everybody loved it, and WB went “Oh shit. That is actually the movie we were supposed to be making this whole time” so they tried to just slap that together with Ayer’s sensibilities resulting in the mess we got.