It appears acclaimed director James Gunn has is developing another secret DC project. As per a report in The Hollywood Reporter, Gunn and his producer Peter Safran are circling a “mystery” DC movie and even one another project. There are no details about the project(s) available right now, but it is likely not a sequel to his 2021 film ‘The Suicide Squad’ and some other project. It is not a huge surprise, since the film was critically acclaimed, if not commercially successful (it was a victim of Warner Bros’ 2021 move to release every movie simultaneously on HBO Max and in theatres).
Gunn has had quite a journey since he was associated exclusively with Marvel. In 2018 Disney, the parent company of Marvel Studios from any projects of the studio. The reason for the ban was his old tweets in which he appeared to joke about paedophilia and rape. The tweets resurfaced after US conservatives shared them due to his criticism of the Donald J Trump presidency. Hours after the tweets appeared, Disney ended any association with him, including the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ franchise in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This allowed Warner Bros to recruit him for a DC movie. He chose a soft reboot of the 2016 movie ‘Suicide Squad’.
The film starred Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Sylvester Stallone, Viola Davis, David Dastmalchian, Daniela Melchior, Michael Rooker, Jai Courtney, Peter Capaldi, Alice Braga, and Pete Davidson.
The film scored 90 per cent on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. The critical consensus reads, “Enlivened by writer-director James Gunn’s singularly skewed vision, The Suicide Squad marks a funny, fast-paced rebound that plays to the source material’s violent, anarchic strengths.”
Apart from ‘The Suicide Squad’, Gunn also wrote and directed a John Cena-fronted spinoff series called ‘Peacemaker’ for HBO Max, which was also received well.
When it comes to superhero movies, Gunn has excelled with team-ups between weirdo characters who learn to play together, but with ‘Peacemaker’ he proved that he is good with sole characters as well if it allows him to dismantle the character in his own way and his unique irreverent brand of humour.
Meanwhile, Disney hired Gunn back, and he is currently busy with the post-production of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’, which comes out next year.