Warner Brothers has a writer and director for ‘Suicide Squad 2’ in its crosshairs– Gavin O’Connor. O’Connor replaces David Ayer who wrote and directed the first movie but has departed the sequel in order to focus on ‘Gotham City Sirens’ which will be executive produced by and star Margot Robbie, reprising her ‘Squad’ role as Doctor Harleen Quinzel a.k.a. Harley Quinn.
O’Connor worked with Warner Brothers on the surprise hit ‘The Accountant’, an action movie starring Ben Affleck, who just so happened to appear as Batman in the first ‘Squad’. O’Connor made a splash with his 2004 film ‘Miracle’ and has generally stuck with lower-budget fare like ‘Pride and Glory’, ‘Warrior’ and ‘Jane Got A Gun’. ‘The Accountant’ apparently impressed WB enough to get him a meeting and they seem to have liked his pitch for ‘Squad 2’. O’Connor will co-write the script with longtime collaborator Anthony Tambakis. WB selected O’Connor over rumored directors like Mel Gibson (!) and Jaume Collet-Serra (‘The Shallows’, ‘Non-Stop’) the latter of which departed to direct the Disney film ‘Jungle Cruise’ starring Dwayne Johnson.
O’Connor is also attached to direct another superhero film, ‘The Green Hornet’.
John Requa and Glenn Ficarra are directing another movie with Robbie, ‘Harley Quinn Vs. The Joker’ which co-stars Jared Leto, who debuted as Harley’s “puddin'” in the first ‘Squad’. While ‘Squad 2’, ‘Gotham City Sirens’ and ‘Harley Vs. Joker’ are part of the DCEU, none are connected to the ‘Joker’ origin movie to be directed by Todd Phillips.
Both Robbie and Leto are expected to be back in ‘Squad 2’ along with Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Killer Croc), Jai Courtney (Captain Boomerang), Viola Davis (Amanda Waller), Karen Fukuhara (Katana), Jay Hernandez (Diablo), Joel Kinnaman (Rick Flagg) and Will Smith (Deadshot).
After fans failed to respond fondly to the over-the-top supernatural storyline of the first movie, expect the sequel to be a more straight forward action movie, allowing the villains to shine in a more natural setting.
‘Suicide Squad 2’ is hoped to be in theaters in 2019, but doesn’t yet have a set release date.
Source: Deadline
