James Gunn Praises Panama After The Suicide Squad Production

After a short burst of filming on The Suicide Squad, James Gunn and his cast are leaving Panama City, apparently with nothing but fond memories and kind words for the place. The film, which is shooting primarily in and around Atlanta, GA, relocated to the Central American locale for about a week, as revealed previously by cast and crew posts on Instagram. Since we know relatively little about the plot of the project, it is hard to guess what involvement the trip has in the overall story, or whether Panama and Atlanta will even be played as especially distinct places in the final product. Given DC’s history of using fictional city and country names, it’s likely that neither place will be name-dropped in the story.

Of course, the movie is said to hew a little closer the Suicide Squad comics of the ’80s, where the team was often deployed not exclusively against metahuman threats but to go deal with other interests vital to the government agencies that ran Task Force X. It’s possible that a Central American mission is in the cards just for that reason alone.

“[Panama City, Panama], thank you so much for welcoming our The Suicide Squad family into your city,” Gunn posted on Twitter, along with some photos of himself and his girlfriend, actress Jennifer Holland, celebrating with locals. “The only thing better than your food is your people.”

The Suicide Squad is set to star returning Suicide Squad cast members Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag and Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, as well as franchise newcomers Idris Elba, Michael Rooker, Peter Capaldi, Nathan Fillion, John Cena, Sean Gunn, David Dastmalchian, Storm Reid, and Taika Waititi. Other cast additions include Pete Davidson, Juan Diego Botto, Joaquin Cosio, Flula Borg, Tinashe Kajese, Jennifer Holland, Julio Ruiz, Alice Braga, Steve Agee, and Daniela Melchior. All of those newcomers are in as-yet-unknown (or at least unannounced) roles.

The film is reportedly a kinda/sorta sequel to Suicide Squad, in that the characters and roles remain the same but it is not a direct continuation and it likely will not be necessary to have watched the previous movie to understand this one.

The Suicide Squad is set to hit theaters on August 6, 2021. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is currently in theaters. Other upcoming DC movies include Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5, The Batman on June 25, 2021, Black Adam on December 22, 2021, Shazam! 2 on April 1, 2022, The Flash on July 1, 2022, and Aquaman 2 on December 16, 2022.