To a certain segment of the internet that doesn’t touch grass or a partner that much, it will only ever be 2013 when it comes to DC movies. Zack Snyder is a meat-headed god to middling men, everyone else can suck it, and James Gunn is as bad as — if not worse than — Satan himself. They say his The Suicide Squad disrespects the first, though as a new point now says, this is not remotely the reality of it at all.
Because nothing can ever be let go of, the above tweet is circulating online in response to another user saying Gunn humiliated Ayer’s characters at the start of his 2021 follow-up to the 2016 film. As Mauricio correctly points out, the film having anyone die at any time echoes the comic source material (indeed, in one 2001 run, the entirety of the team except for two members die in the first issue). As well, Jai Courtney’s character got an epic death if you consider him holding his equipment to be a strong symbol of defiance, and Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag and Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn anchor the piece. In response to the post and defenders of Gunn attacking the criticism, the original poster is bemoaning what is lost and is once again calling for an Ayer cut.
It is worth noting Gunn has not shut the door on releasing this in the future as some of the cultists like the figure above claim. Elsewhere in the discourse, fans of Courtney’s character are going as far as to say Gunn has a moral obligation to bring him back once The Flash resets the franchise’s continuity. As well, for someone else, the Gunn hatred makes no sense.
What will happen with the characters and the franchise in the future remains to be seen. Gunn’s Peacemaker spin-off on HBO Max is getting a second season, and there will be a show about Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller, but another film remains an unclear proposition. In 2021, Gunn said he had an idea that would be different than a new team, but in 2022, said he prioritizes TV. This has obviously changed with him coming aboard to co-lead DC’s multimedia efforts alongside Peter Safran, but with Gunn already announcing a slate of projects and being set for Superman: Legacy, we should not expect more of Task Force X for a long while.