Suicide Squad 2 has been searching for a director since February, when the first rumours revealed Mel Gibson was being considered for the job. Five months later, another director looked poised to sign on, but then moved to another project. Now, it seems, Warner Bros. has finally made its choice.
Image: Warner Bros.
It’s Gavin O’Connor, the director of Warrior, Jane Got a Gun and, most recently, The Accountant. That film was released by Warner Bros. and starred Ben Affleck, so O’Connor obviously knows a few of the DC players both in front of and behind the camera.
O’Connor is a solid director whose films I’ve almost always enjoyed. He’s good at action, keeps an even tone, and usually employs a gritty visual aesthetic. But… he just feels like such an obvious, uninspired choice. You say “Gavin O’Connor’s Suicide Squad 2” and you can almost see the movie in your head. It looks a lot like the original, but with a little less flair. That said, however, The Accountant surprised me with its complexity and emotion. I think O’Connor can make a good Suicide Squad movie, it’s just going to have to be something beyond what we’ve come to expect from him.
Suicide Squad 2 will likely bring back all of the major characters who survived the original film, including Will Smith’s Deadshot, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and Jared Leto’s Joker. It has no release date yet, but Warner Bros. has already earmarked April and June 2019 dates for DC movies. It will probably claim one of those, alongside (most likely) Shazam.
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