James Gunn’s ‘Suicide Squad’ to Be a “Total Reboot,” Not a Sequel

James Gunn is about to be one of the busiest filmmakers in Hollywood. Not only has he been reinstated as the director for Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but he’ll continue writing and directing The Suicide Squad for Warner Brothers. Though many anticipated Gunn’s take on the group to play off of David Ayer’s film released a few years back, that’s simply not the case — it appears the film is going to end up as a “total reboot.” While the announcement is a bit surprising, it makes sense in the wake of the studio reportedly replacing Will Smith with Idris Elba as Deadshot earlier this month.

On the press tour for Shazam!, producer Peter Safran — one of the minds behind both Shazam! and Aquaman — confirmed to JoBlo that Gunn’s film will serve as a total reboot for the edgy group. When asked about “Suicide Squad 2,” Safran was quick to correct the interviewer that Gunn’s upcoming blockbuster won’t be a direct continuation from Suicide Squad — rather, it will serve as a hard reboot.

“First of all, we don’t call it Suicide Squad 2 ’cause it’s a total reboot,” Safran says. “So it’s The Suicide Squad and I think people should be extremely excited about it. It’s everything you would hope from a James Gunn script and I think that says a lot and that promises a lot and I know that we will deliver a lot.”

The producer then went on to admit Gunn’s reinstatement on the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise won’t have any effect on the production of The Suicide Squad. As previously reported, Gunn only rejoined Marvel Studios after the production house allowed him to finish up the film before shooting Guardians 3.

“No, it was all handled incredibly elegantly and everybody knows on both sides that Suicide Squad is the priority today and he’ll finish that movie and then everybody knows that his next film will be Guardians,” Safran admits. “It’s the best of all possible both worlds, I think, for fans and for James Gunn himself.”

Aquaman will be released on home media March 26th while Shazam! hits theaters on April 5th.

What do you think about Gunn’s film being a hard reboot? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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