John Cena Says the Beginning of The Suicide Squad Is Like Its Own Movie

John Cena has had a long and celebrated career as a WWE performer, which is about as close to real-life superhero comics as anything else. Now he's taking it to the next level by becoming a DC Comics character The Suicide Squad. Speaking to Collider while promoting Dolittle, Cena remains as surprised as anyone that his career has taken this turn towards the superheroic. "Dude, it's a… I don't know how any of this is happening," Cena says. "I mean, I'm promoting a movie with Robert Downey Jr. I'm currently filming a movie, a superhero movie, with James Gunn."

Cena goes on to say that he's been impressed with The Suicide Squad since he first read the script, saying the beginning of the film is like a complete film in and of itself. "I was blown away," he says. "The first 10 pages [are] like a movie in itself. It's really, really special. That's because the guy steering the ship [Gunn] is committed to narrative and committed to creating characters that we connect with and sending them on an awesome journey. I mean what he did with [Guardians of the Galaxy] is really special."

He goes on to praise Gunn's storytelling abilities and his dedication. "You want to go to work with people who jump out of bed every day and want to go to work," Cena says. "[Gunn] is the epitome of that. He cares so much about what he's doing and I think especially when he's put in a position to write, develop, and do this by his rules essentially. He chose the franchise. He kind of dictated his terms and now he's really betting on himself and I hope everybody enjoys seeing it as much as we're enjoying making it because it's awesome."

Gunn's film is expected to earn an R-rating. The film is a follow-up, but not a sequel, to David Ayer's 2016 Suicide Squad movies. In addition to Cena, the film's cast also includes returning stars Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Viola Davis (Amanda Waller), Joel Kinnaman (Rick Flag) and Jai Courtney (Captain Boomerang), and newcomers Peter Capaldi, Idris Elba, Michael Rooker, Nathan Fillion, Sean Gunn, David Dastmalchian, Storm Reid, Pete Davidson, and Taika Waititi.

The Suicide Squad opens in theaters on August 6, 2021. Other upcoming DC Films movies include Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) on February 7th, Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5th, The Batman on June 25, 2021, Black Adam on December 22, 2021, Shazam! 2 on April 1, 2022, Super Pets on May 20, 2022, The Flash on July 1, 2022, and Aquaman 2 on December 16, 2022.