What Gavin O'Connor Means for Suicide Squad 2
Updated: May 28, 2018
Suicide Squad 2 has found its director.
Gavin O’Connor, director of Miracle, has been tabbed to write and direct the sequel to the 2016 DC Comics based film, which was a commercial success despite mostly negative reviews.
What does this mean for the film? O’Connor doesn’t have the track record of the sort of whacky films that you’d expect Suicide Squad to be. His attachment likely means a bit more serious tone to the film. While the characters will still carry their own humorous moments, the zaniness will be dialed down.
Despite the first film doing well at the box office, Warner Bros. knows the sequel has to be better. With a Harley Quinn/Joker spinoff already in the works, the studio can ill afford another critical failure. It has to keep life pumped in to the franchise.
O’Connor may be an unconventional choice for a comic book movie, but his track record of quality films speaks for itself. He’s also a steady hand behind the wheel, which Warner Bros. desperately needs. O’Connor has worked well with the studio before, in last year’s The Accountant, so that has to be appealing to them as well. More than anything, they need stability in a film as important as this.
David Ayer, who helmed Suicide Squad, is a good director, but many of the characters were introduced too briefly or not at all. The audience developed no real connection to any of them. The story has some fantastic characters that were just wasted. Deadshot and Harley Quinn did get their screen time (and the studio did us all a favor by cutting most of the Joker’s scenes), but I’d like to see a reintroduction of the other characters that were basically passed over in the first film.
Creative differences and massive studio interference also kept the film from reaching its full potential. O’Connor represents a clean slate for the studio with a director it trusts, and this should mean less interference with the production. His presence also means a greater chance of another Batman cameo from Ben Affleck. O’Connor and Affleck worked together on The Accountant and are working together again on its sequel. I’m betting that relationship results in another appearance from DC’s flagship hero.
With Will Smith (Deadshot), Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn) and Jared Leto (the Joker, unfortunately) all set to return, the talent from the first cast is already there. O’Connor may take this film in a slightly different direction in terms of tone, but that’s probably a good thing. His steady hand should ensure a smooth production process. And with all the problems Warner Bros. and DC Films have had in the early stages of their film universe, that’s exactly what they need.