Since his dismissal from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, James Gunn has started anew as the writer and director of The Suicide Squad, and so far, it sounds like things are going pretty swimmingly for the guy.
A recent piece from THR reported that Warner Bros. is currently “extremely high” on Gunn’s script, meaning that the pic is “barrelling forward into the casting stage.” One big name that could already be close to joining the cast, for instance, is Idris Elba, who’s said to be Warner and Gunn’s first and only choice to replace Will Smith in the role of Deadshot. According to THR’s sources, Elba met with Gunn last Friday and talks with the studio have now begun in earnest, suggesting that the team is wasting no time in finding their next Floyd Lawton.
Meanwhile, though the outlet reports that Harley Quinn is still expected to return, the future of Joel Kinnaman’s character Rick Flag seems less certain, with one source alleging that the colonel from 2016’s Suicide Squad won’t be coming back.
In any case, it sounds like Warner is moving forward quickly with Gunn’s script, suggesting that we may get some clarification soon enough on who is and isn’t going to make the cut. Incidentally, the pace of progress for The Suicide Squad makes for a stark contrast with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which seems to have plummeted down Marvel Studios’ list of priorities, despite plenty of praise for Gunn’s screenplay.
At this rate, it’s likely that the next Gunn script to make it to cinemas will be The Suicide Squad, which is set for release on August 6th, 2021. In the meantime, we’re now less than a month away from seeing the DCEU’s next offering, with Shazam! scheduled to hit theaters on April 5th, 2019.