The Suicide Squad Director James Gunn Throws Shade at Paparazzi Set Photos

Before DC FanDome gave fans their first official looks at most of the characters from James Gunn's [...]

By Russ Burlingame

Before DC FanDome gave fans their first official looks at most of the characters from James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, many of the characters' looks had already been spoiled for the audience by low-quality paparazzi shots, filmed around practical locations where Gunn was shooting the movie. Given the nature of the movie -- a seemingly technicolor take on the team that embraces some of the oddities of traditional superhero costumes from the comic books -- those suits need a little better than that to really shine. But Gunn has more or less acknowledged that this will likely keep happening as he films the HBO Max series Peacemaker, which spins out of the events of The Suicide Squad.

Not that he's particularly happy about it, mind you. But when asked on social media today about the first time fans would see Adrian Chase/Vigilante, a character who will appear in Peacemaker alongside John Cena, Gunn was resigned to the paparazzi getting there first.

"Probably when some knucklehead hiding in a tree takes a shoddy picture that should never see the light of day when we're on location someday," Gunn told the fan.

It's easy enough to ask some variation on "well, then, why don't you release it yourself and get out ahead of it?" There are a few answers, but a particularly good one is that filmmakers and studios don't like to allow the whims of paparazzi to determine the schedule of their film's rollout. Sure, Zack Snyder did early shots of Batman and Wonder Woman ahead of filming for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice -- but those were planned, and timed, to promote the movie, not just to appease the internet's bottomless need for content.

You can see his tweet below.

The Suicide Squad is expected to include Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flagg, David Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man, Steve Agee as King Shark, and Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher. John Cena, Flula Borg, Nathan Fillion, Mayling Ng, Pete Davidson, Sean Gunn, Joaquin Cosio, Juan Diego Botto, Storm Reid, Taika Waititi, Alice Braga, Tinashe Kajese, Peter Capaldi, Julio Ruiz, Jennifer Holland, Idris Elba, and Michael Rooker also star, with Cena's Peacemaker being the subject of his own show on HBO Max.

The Suicide Squad is scheduled to be released on August 6, 2021.

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