By the time The Suicide Squad hits theaters next summer, fifteen years will have passed since James Gunn last made a movie that didn’t feature superheroes in some fashion. After directing R-rated black comedy Super in 2010, Gunn boarded the Marvel Cinematic Universe and delivered the first two installments in the Guardians of the Galaxy series, and is widely expected to start work on the third once his brief detour into the DCEU has drawn to a close.
Of course, the main reason the filmmaker is spearheading the soft reboot of David Ayer’s maligned first movie is that Disney originally fired him from the Guardians franchise after some unsavory tweets from a decade previously began recirculating online, but after a huge backlash from fans and the cast of the sci-fi blockbusters, the Mouse House reversed their decision and reinstated him.
That pushed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 back by years, and while there’s every chance Gunn could decide to tackle something else to recharge his creative batteries after spending so long working exclusively in the realm of ensemble-based comic book adaptations, in a recent interview he admitted that a third Suicide Squad was a definite possibility.
The 54 year-old has previously revealed that his involvement with Star-Lord and the gang will end after the trilogy closing chapter, and if The Suicide Squad lives up to the potential of both the premise and the teaser trailer unleashed upon an unsuspecting world at this summer’s DC FanDome event, then he’ll find himself having the unique distinction of having written and directed two successful and irreverent superhero franchises at different studios, which is a pretty enviable position to be in for someone who got their big break working for schlock specialists Troma.
