Considering everything that happened across the previous two hours, the ending of The Suicide Squad is positively upbeat compared to the rest of the movie. The remnants of Task Force X haven’t quite become heroes, but they did the right thing and have now been afforded some level of freedom and protection from Amanda Waller, thanks to some blackmail.
Bloodsport, Harley Quinn, Ratcatcher 2 and King Shark made the news for saving the people of Corto Maltese from an attack by inter-dimensional villain Starro, but they just want to be left alone. Having discovered the alien starfish was brought to Earth by the U.S. government, Waller orders Peacemaker to cover it up, but following his apparent demise Bloodsport ensures that he holds onto the leverage.
It ties things up in neat narrative bow, offering the merest hint of a redemption arc without deviating away from the concept of The Suicide Squad largely being populated by terrible people doing even more terrible things, sometimes for no other reason than the fact they enjoy it. However, James Gunn revealed in a new interview that he initially pitched a darker ending to the film, but he wouldn’t be drawn on what it was.
“I mean, that was my original pitch to Walt Hamada and Toby Emmerich over at Warner Bros. I brought in pictures of all those guys because I knew it would be hard to keep track of. So I brought in all these photos from the comics of all the different characters that are on team one, team two, and Starro. And the pitch was almost exactly what the movie was. There’s actually a little bit of a darker ending to the pitch that changed, but besides that, everything was exactly the same. It was just as edgy as it is in the movie itself.”
Looking at the tone of The Suicide Squad throughout, it wouldn’t have been surprising if he’d just had Waller blow up everybody’s heads once the job was done, wiping the slate well and truly clean. However, Warner Bros. undoubtedly have further sequels in mind, and the quartet of survivors make for a solid foundation, especially if someone like Will Smith’s Deadshot were to be reintroduced into the mix for a potential third installment of R-rated supervillainous escapades.