So after a few years of lagging behind, Warner Bros. is getting very aggressive about getting their DC Comics universe up and running. We know a “Justice League” movie is coming on top of a “Superman V. Batman: Dawn of Justice,” and there’s a “Shazam!”/“Captain Marvel” movie in the works too. And that’s not all. Less than 24 hours after Fox announced their darkhorse hero comic “Deadpool” for 2016, Warner Bros. is getting its mooted darkhorse team together, “The Suicide Squad.”
There’s been rumors of a new “Suicide Squad” film percolating for a few months now (though evidently it’s been in development for several years now), but it appears that it’s really happening. Evidently, David Ayer, who already released “Sabotage” earlier this year and has the Brad Pitt WWII movie “Fury” coming out next month, is the top choice to direct the film. And "Suicide Squad" points to an interconnected DC Universe world too. There’s already been rumors that Amanda Waller will appear in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” Who’s that? She’s the hardline top-ranking U.S. Government agent involved in clandestine operations who runs the Suicide Squad.
The group is a collection of anti-heroes and mainly incarcerated super villains. In the first iteration of “The Suicide Squad” in the 1980s, the team was rounded up and created by Waller who forced them to act out covert government actions in exchange for not rotting in jail, or in some cases escaping death sentences. Their dangerous objectives were essentially suicide missions where team members weren’t expected to come back alive, but what choice did ex-cons have? Needless to say the team was top secret and totally off the books. Waller becomes a bigger character in the DC Universe down the line for her illegal, often unsanctioned missions, and has had several run-ins with both Batman and Superman. The popular Batman villain Harley Quinn became a member of the team in versions of the comic in more recent years.
It’s an interesting, left-field choice for WB. You’d at least think we’d get confirmed announcements of "Flash," "Wonder Woman" or more established characters first, but maybe it’s getting their foot in the door with super-villain movies ala Sony‘s "Sinister Six," and not falling behind in that regard. No deals are done, but as Variety notes, Ayer is a strong first choice because he would be a good fit for dark and edgy material like this. No release date yet, but Justin Marks ("Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li," "Top Gun 2") wrote the screenplay.
