The Suicide Squad Producer Calls Original Film A "Troubled Production"

Even when cameras were first rolling on the original Suicide Squad movie things got off to a rocky start in the press after it was revealed that star Jared Leto was sending peculiar "gifts" to his co-stars as a means of getting into character. Things got more complicated and weird as time went on with studio meddling and an argument of whose "cut" was the one released into theaters, and all these years later it's still a major sticking point for some DC fans. Speaking on the set of The Suicide Squad, DC Films producer Peter Safran (who wasn't involved in the first movie) alluded to some of the issues that the film had, but said that the issues present on the first movie never prevented them from making a follow-up.

"Well, I wasn't involved in the first movie and I wasn't involved with any of the development they did, post that, until we got James on board. So I'm sure that they spent a lot of time, The movie was incredibly successful. It was polarizing, to say the least, but clearly there was an idea of, how do we continue with this property? I'm sure they tried to analyze what worked and what didn't work with it, because it was really commercially successful, although it was a troubled production, because I gather that there was a real difference of opinion between the director and the studio that emerged through production and through post."

That said, Safran said that the new movie will simply not acknowledge the events of the 2016 movie, so don't expect any Easter eggs that tease what came before.

"We just don't address it any tangible form," Safran said. "Yes, they're the characters, the actors that played them in the first movie. But we really wanted to make sure that this stands on its own two feet. So again, it's why you can't really call it... It's not a sequel, but there are some characters that were in the first movie, right? So it's not really a full reboot either. So we just call it James Gunn's The Suicide Squad."

Gunn did address Ayer and his problems with the studio directly on Twitter a few weeks ago, extending a friendly hand to the filmmaker and tweeting "A lot of the major players at Warners were different people, there was no doubt their troubles with you helped to pave an easier path for me, David, so I'm very grateful for that, and for everything else you did to help this movie along its path." Ayer responded in kind too, replying: "Aw man thank you. You're good people James. Godspeed."

The Suicide Squad hits theaters and streams on HBO Max on August 6!