Let’s rewind a little bit, and take a look at what happened here. James Gunn has always been a fans favorite, since his early years in Troma, being one of the writers of Tromeo and Juliet (1996), Terror Firmer (1999) and The Tromaville Café (1997– ) TV series, including his early horror and fantasy early films Slither (2006) and Super (2010), and not forgetting his screenplays for The Specials (2000), Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead (2004), and the Scooby-Doo movies. He was always been very active in social networks, especially on Twitter and Instagram, where he’s shared with the fans a lot of personal moments, movie working stuff, and that dark sense of humor we like so much. And, at least in my case, I was a little skeptic when he landed on the job of writer and director for Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and its sequel Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), but those two have ended up being the best Marvel Cinematic Universe movies made in this new century, so we all should celebrate the decision.
But right while he was immersed in the writing of the screenplay for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2021), the controversy started. Gunn was the victim of a dirty discredit campaign by Disney due to some so-called offensive jokes he made on Twitter years before he started his contract with Marvel. The polemic ended up with Gunn being fired by the Mickey Mouse empire, causing a big discontent in the fanbase and the cast of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, particularly Dave Bautista who stated he would end up fulfilling his contract, but it was “pretty nauseating to work for someone who’d empower a smear campaign by fascists cybernazis”. Soon after his dismissal, James Gunn signed with DC to write and direct the new Suicide Squad movie, after the producers decided to pass on David Ayer’s plans for a sequel. And this is how the story of The Suicide Squad (2021) started.
James Gunn described The Suicide Squad (2021) as neither a direct sequel or a reboot of the first film, but that “it is what it is“. Some of the actors in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad (2016) are reprising their roles, like Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, and Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, while some other names like Taika Waititi, Pete Davidson, Idris Elba, Joaquín Cosio, John Cena, Nathan Fillion, Storm Reid, Michael Rooker, Alice Braga, David Dastmalchian, Jennifer Holland, Mayling Ng, Flula Borg, Juan Diego Botto, Daniela Melchior, and Sean Gunn have been added to the cast.
The plot for The Suicide Squad (2021) is still unknown, but reportedly James Gunn has taken big inspiration in the 1980s Suicide Squad comics and chose to focus on new characters. Star Joel Kinnaman described the film as a comedy, which totally has sense following James Gunn’s previous works. Filming began on September 20, 2019, at Pinewood Studios in Atlanta, USA, and wrapped on February 28, 2020. The Suicide Squad (2021) is scheduled to be released in the United States on August 6, 2021. It was the director James Gunn who announced the ending of the filming sessions on his personal Instagram account.
2021 is going to be a busy year for James Gunn because, as everybody already knows, the pathetic dispute with Disney ended up with the filmmaker issuing his unnecessary apologies and the suits having him back for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2021). When was the last time this happened? The same filmmaker releasing a DC Comics and Marvel in the same year? Probably never?
