Suicide Squad Director David Ayer Is Psyched About James Gunn Doing The Sequel

Harley in Suicide Squad

The DC live-action universe has had a bumpy tenure in theaters, full of peaks and valleys. While Warner Bros.' massive franchise seems to have found its stride with the most recent releases, some of the earlier installments failed to impress critics and fans. David Ayer's Suicide Squad is one of those movies, alongside Justice League and Batman v Superman. David Ayer won't be back to helm The Suicide Squad, with Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn taking over. And it looks like Ayer is psyched about that choice in replacement.

David Ayer has always made his feelings known about his work on Suicide Squad, and the blockbuster's various accomplishments and missteps. Because despite the movie's mistakes, it ultimately earned money at the box office, began a franchise, and even won an Oscar in the process. Ayer recently spoke to his frustrations about the film's bad reputation, but also clarified that the property is in great hands with James Gunn. Check it out below.

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David Ayer might not be happy with everything about Suicide Squad, but he's sure James Gunn will do great work with his upcoming DC blockbuster, featuring a handful of characters that made their debut in the first film.

These new comments come from David Ayer's Twitter, which the filmmaker regularly uses to directly communicate with fans. The director recently went on the social media platform to complain about the bad rap Suicide Squad has. Specifically, he doesn't want his blockbuster blamed for the way the DCEU has pivoted its new releases away from crossover-heavy movies and onto characters-driven stories. But that doesn't mean he's unhappy with how The Suicide Squad is shaping up, especially where James Gunn is concerned.

Like it's predecessor, The Suicide Squad will focus on a motley crew of villains, who are forced together to form Task Force X. This is a type of superhero movie that James Gunn is all too familiar with, given his outstanding work with the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. Gunn took a relatively unknown group of heroes, and quickly made them the stars of a fan favorite property within the massive MCU. So he's seems to have the perfect skill set to bring The Suicide Squad to life.

Related: James Gunn Announces Full Cast Of The Suicide Squad

James Gunn's involvement in The Suicide Squad happened during the interim months where he was temporarily fired by Marvel Studios. Prior to starting up production on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, controversial tweets by Gunn resurfaced from a decade ago, and the filmmaker was promptly canned. While he was eventually reinstated, he nabbed the gig directing The Suicide Squad during that time, and therefore we'll get his DC debut before he pivots back to Marvel for the Guardians threequel.

It should be interesting to see what James Gunn does with The Suicide Squad, and how he establishes a film that isn't too familiar to his work on Guardians. And since David Ayer is so open about his feelings, we're sure to get a candid response on Twitter once the movie arrives in theaters.

The Suicide Squad will hit theaters on August 6, 2021. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

Corey Chichizola
Movies Editor

Corey was born and raised in New Jersey. Graduated with degrees theater and literature from Ramapo College of New Jersey. After working in administrative theater for a year in New York, he started as the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. He's since been able to work himself up to reviews, phoners, and press junkets-- and is now able to appear on camera with some of his favorite actors... just not as he would have predicted as a kid. He's particularly proud of covering horror franchises like Scream and Halloween, as well as movie musicals like West Side Story. Favorite interviews include Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more.