2016’s Suicide Squad made a lot of money at the box office, but reviews were pretty savage. That’s why the upcoming sequel The Suicide Squad will mark itself out as a completely different movie. Original director David Ayer, who clashed with Warner Bros. for control of his film, has been replaced by James Gunn, who was behind Marvel’s successful Guardians of the Galaxy series. Another big aspect that will differ between the two movies though is the rating.
Variety has shared a fascinating report on the future of the DCEU and as part of it, the trade writes that insiders have informed them that The Suicide Squad is expected to sport an R-rating. If this turns out to be the case, it’ll be the second entry in the DCEU to be R-rated, after Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), and the third recent DC project, following Joker.
Though the Guardians films are PG-13, like all MCU efforts to date, Gunn has proven to be more at home with an R-rating in his previous productions. For instance, his mature superhero comedy movie Super. In fact, we’ve heard multiple times that TSS will be pretty much a comedy, so maybe we should expect something closer in tone to that 2010 flick than his Marvel blockbusters.
In any case, fans were disappointed back in 2016 when the first film turned out to be PG-13, given the darker potential for Task Force X, but DC has clearly listened and beginning with BoP, the Harley Quinn corner of the DCEU looks to be exclusively R-rated going forward. The recent popularity of adult-oriented superhero fare suggests this is a smart move, too.
The Suicide Squad is shooting now and is locked in for release on August 6th, 2021. After work’s completed on that, Gunn will return to Marvel Studios to finish his Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy.
