James Gunn Isn’t Done With the DC “Villain-Verse” After The Suicide Squad

"Don't get too attached," warns The Suicide Squad — but director James Gunn isn't through with the expendable supervillains of the DC "villain-verse." Gunn returns to the gritty underbelly of the DC Extended Universe with the action-packed Peacemaker, the John Cena-starring series spinning out of The Suicide Squad on HBO Max, and the filmmaker has hinted it's not the only spin-off in the works at the WarnerMedia streamer. After DC Films President Walter Hamada confirmed there's "more stuff planned" with Gunn in the shared DCEU, Gunn says there are "ideas" for a Suicide Squad 3 or other extensions of the reinvented franchise at Warner Bros.:

"I have all sorts of ideas, and we talk about it all the time," Gunn told Entertainment Tonight when asked about a sequel to The Suicide Squad or spin-offs with a smaller squad of characters. "So I don't feel like I'm done with this villain-verse yet."

Gunn handpicked the motley crew of costumed criminals recruited to Amanda Waller's (Viola Davis) Task Force X in The Suicide Squad. Gunn's standalone film, neither a reboot nor a sequel to David Ayer's Suicide Squad, reunites Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) as part of a new squad that includes Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), and King Shark (voice of Sylvester Stallone).

"When they first came to me, it was really about what DC project I wanted to do. The first thing they brought up was Superman, and the second thing they brought up was Suicide Squad," Gunn recalled about an open offer from DC to make any movie he wanted. "So those were the first two projects, and then I had another project that they never brought up, never thought of, a couple of other ones that we talked about a little bit. People have talked about Krypto [the Superdog], they know that I brought that up at one point.

"So there's different characters that came up that interested me, and I just took some time and started sketching out what the different stories could be with these different characters. It was obvious from the very beginning that Suicide Squad just captured my imagination. It was the most fun. People are like, 'Why didn't you do Superman or Justice League?' I found this to be the most creatively fulfilling story. I know someone's gonna do a Superman movie again. I don't know that Polka-Dot Man's gonna get his story told if I don't tell it."

Starring Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Jai Courtney, Peter Capaldi, David Dastmalchian, Daniela Melchior, Sylvester Stallone, and Viola Davis, The Suicide Squad is now playing in theaters and streaming on HBO Max through September 6.