James Gunn Confirms That The Suicide Squad Is DCEU Canon

The Suicide Squad turned out to be much more of a sequel than a reboot, continuing the story of Harley Quinn, Rick Flag, and Amanda Waller that began in David Ayers’ Suicide Squad. Even so, there are those who’ve wondered if it’s official DCEU canon – as in whether it takes place in the same universe as Birds of Prey, The Flash, and Aquaman.

Wonder no more, as Gunn himself has laid those doubts to rest. In an interview with Collider, he was asked about its canon status and replied:

“It is the DCEU. So it’s whatever the DCEU is today and with Aquaman and The Flash and everything else, that’s where The Suicide Squad is. So that is what it is.”

However, when he was specifically asked if it continues on from the Henry Cavill Superman story, Gunn was vaguer: “That’s outside of my realm of knowledge.”

This may speak to a shift in philosophy inside Warner Bros. Those working on DC characters have reportedly been discouraged from using the term “DCEU” to refer to their projects, potentially stemming from a desire to play down connections between their movies and focus on individual stories.

You don’t have to be a paid-up Snyderbro to figure out that this might have something to do with the unwelcome (for Warner Bros executives) success of Zack Snyder’s Justice League on HBO Max earlier this year. The superhero epic picked up a lot of positive reviews, topped international streaming charts, and has had many calling for the reinstatement of the ‘Snyderverse‘.

However that pans out, no matter whether Warner Bros like it or not, if they’re using characters introduced in Snyder movies then their sequels are set in his world. This means that throwaway lines like Bloodsport being imprisoned for shooting Superman with a Kryptonite bullet connect the movie to the Henry Cavill version of the character (and I want to see that story!).

Where the DCEU goes from here is anyone’s guess, though I’d bet that things will look a lot different after the universe-hopping shenanigans of The Flash. Watch this space.

The Suicide Squad is now in theaters and on HBO Max.