James Gunn Says DC Let Him Kill Whoever He Wanted in ‘The Suicide Squad’

In Suicide Squad comic books, characters did not have a habit of sticking around that long. The missions were dangerous, and the criminals on the team accepted them in exchanged for shortened sentences — if they survived. Hence, the book’s title.

The first Suicide Squad film did include the deaths of a few major characters. (RIP Slipknot, the man who can climb anything) but it sure looks like the upcoming sequel, The Suicide Squad, will outdo it in that department. It features an enormous cast of characters, which leaves writer/director James Gunn with many options for baddies to bump off.

According to Gunn on Twitter, in fact, DC gave him “carte blanche” to do what he wanted in the film. “No character,” he said — not even Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn — “was protected by DC:

It seems mighty unlikely that Harley Quinn will die, no matter what James Gunn says. Still, you have to assume The Suicide Squad will have a much bigger body count than the first film. So many of the characters in this one are so obscure — like Pete Davidson’s Blackguard, or Michael Rooker’s Savant, or Daniela Melchior’s Ratcatcher — that it would be shocking to see them survive for more than a couple of minutes of screentime. The Suicide Squad is scheduled to open in theaters on August 6, 2021.

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