Yesterday it was revealed that Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn is heading to the DC Extended Universe to write – and potentially direct – Warner Bros. and DC Film’s Suicide Squad follow-up.
The news came as a surprise, not least because there’d been no word as to the departure of The Accountant helmer Gavin O’Connor, who signed on to the project back in September 2017.
Well, we do now have some insight into O’Connor’s exit, with Variety’s Justin Kroll revealing that his story for Suicide Squad 2 was very similar to that of Birds of Prey, and with Warner Bros. deciding to move ahead with the Harley Quinn-headlined spinoff, the director became frustrated with the delay and opted to turn his attention to another project.
On the Gavin O'Connor front in relation to SS2, hearing the story he had for the sequel ended up almost being identical to the BIRDS OF PREY story and when that film was given the go ahead to go before SQUAD 2, O'Connor grew frustrated and fell off project to do HAS BEEN instead
— Justin Kroll (@krolljvar) October 9, 2018
Gunn will be writing an entirely new script for Suicide Squad 2, which is said to be “a whole new start” for the property, rather than a direct sequel to the 2016 movie. At this point, there’s no indication whether that means a complete overhaul, including recasting, or if it’s going to be more of a soft reboot of sorts.
