The recent release of the first trailer for James Gunn's The Suicide Squad has quickly cemented the movie as one of the most anticipated of the year. The footage showed that Gunn and company were going for a weird, wild and violent action-adventure filled with colorful characters. Aside from getting fans excited for the movie itself, the trailer shows that this movie could be the perfect project to help get the DCEU back on the right track after a lot of missteps.
With the positive reception of Zack Snyder's Justice League, DC fans have scored a major victory for their beloved franchise, but it likely won't have the lasting impact they were hoping for. Despite the continued and vocal passion from fans, it looks very unlikely Zack Snyder's original vision for the DCEU will be moving ahead. Beyond that, the cinematic universe is a real mess right now. Wonder Woman 1984 was a letdown for many fans. The Flash continues to struggle through a troubled development. And all these years later, the universe as a whole seems to have no direction.
This has been an issue since the early days of the DCEU with high-profile failures like Batman v Superman and David Ayer's Suicide Squad. Warner Bros. seemed to be stuck in an awkward cycle of hiring directors with strong visions only to get nervous and try to make a movie that felt closer to the MCU. It is this strategy that led to the failure of Justice League and dismantled much of the planned universe. Now the movies, both successful and unsuccessful, exist in this strange limbo of not knowing what is connected to the shared universe and what exists on its own. Following Zack Snyder's Justice League, now seems like the right time to rebuild the DCEU and The Suicide Squad should be its first movie.
Like many of the movies in the DCEU, The Suicide Squad has an interesting development history. Ayer's movie in 2016 was the first live-action movie about the titular group of supervillains forced on a dangerous mission by the government. While the movie was a box office hit, it was savaged by critics leading to Warner Bros. looking for a new director for the sequel. Following his temporary firing from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Gunn was recruited by DC and reportedly given the choice to make any project he wanted. Despite some more iconic names like Superman up for grabs, Gunn did what he always does and went for the weird. But while the movie might not feature the biggest names in the DCEU, it looks to be taking the right steps in correcting the past mistakes.
Gunn has, of course, already proven he can deliver an insanely fun superhero adventure that audiences will love regardless of the prior popularity of the characters. Fans might forget just how influential the success of Guardians of the Galaxy has been for Marvel. While the cinematic universe was already a proven concept at that point, the success of the first Guardians of the Galaxy inspired the MCU to embrace the weirdness of the universe which has only benefited them. Gunn has also praised Warner Bros. for giving him complete freedom on the project which is a far cry from what Zack Snyder and David Ayer have to say about their experience with the studio.
While some fans might think Gunn is just looking to redo his Guardians of the Galaxy thing in the DCEU, the trailer gives a lot of confidence that he is going for something different. This also shows another way the DCEU is correcting itself with this project. The DCEU struggled with how to respond to the overwhelming success of the MCU. It caused them to flounder between trying to do their own thing and trying to copy that success. This resulted in messy projects like Joss Whedon's Justice League and the first Suicide Squad. What the new The Suicide Squad movie seems to be looking at is what works for the MCU then mixing it up with something new. For instance, the movie's R-rating shows what Gunn is able to do when he lets loose in ways he wasn't able to in the MCU. Anyone who is familiar with Gunn's previous movies like Slither and Super should see this as a very good sign.
The movie also confirms that there will be a combination of new characters, such as Peacemaker (John Cena) and Bloodsport (Idris Elba) as well as some returning characters from Ayer's movie. However, this is apparently not actually related to the original movie at all. This brings up a lot of questions but also provides a lesson the DCEU needs to admit to itself -- the continuity should be disregarded. The truth is that they tried to build their own cinematic universe and it just didn't work out. Now it is just unclear what movie connects where and the whole thing is a mess. The Suicide Squad is Warner Bros.'s opportunity to just say it doesn't matter and let these movies exist on their own. There was no way The Batman was ever going to feel like it was in the same universe as Aquaman. There doesn't look to be any team-up movies on the horizon. Some movies can connect if it works but the shared universe should no longer be a guiding mission for the franchise. There are so many interesting and distinct DC stories to tell and they don't need to be crammed into the same box.
Excitement for The Suicide Squad will likely only build over the next few months leading up to its release. Time will tell if the movie is a hit with fans, but judging by what has been revealed so far, this movie feels like a big move in the right direction for the DCEU.
The Suicide Squad will hit theaters and HBO Max on August 6, 2021.