James Gunn’s career has clearly recovered after being fired from Guardians of the Galaxy 3 over his resurfaced controversial tweets. Marvel Studios rivals DC Comics and Warner Bros. Pictures didn’t wait long before hiring him to pen a script for a Suicide Squad followup, which we now know will be a “relaunch” with new characters and an odd title, all of which will be directed by Gunn. The Hollywood Reporter‘s Heat Vision newspaper now reports that Gunn actually had his pick of projects, which included directing a Superman movie.
If true, this serves as further evidence (in addition to James Wan and Jason Momoa’s goofy, badass Aquaman) that DC wants to lighten up after years of wallowing in grittiness. Of course, Wan’s offbeat sensibilities seem right at home with the Suicide Squad franchise, but Heat Vision says that we almost saw what Gunn’s take on Superman, and more specifically, on the Legion of Super-Pets, would have been. He was mulling over how to take on Krypto:
When Warners was courting Gunn, the studio gave him his pick of properties, including Superman. Though Gunn never got far enough along to seriously consider tackling a Superman movie, the filmmaker did take a shine to the Man of Steel‘s superpowered dog Krypto during his comics research — which makes sense for a man who turned a talking raccoon into one of Marvel’s most popular big screen characters.
Gunn ultimately chose not to do the Krypto thing for Super Man, but Comic Book Movie now wonders whether he’ll bring the pup to The Suicide Squad, which is still a strange title to type. It does feel a little passive-aggressive, right? Like The (Real) Suicide Squad might be the vibe that Gunn might be pulling. There’s still plenty of time left before we’ll find out what he’s doing because his movie won’t arrive until August 6, 2021, but there’s no reason he can’t throw Krypto into the mix. It couldn’t be any worse than blob people, after all.
The Suicide Squad will arrive in theaters on August 6, 2021. No word on a Superman release date, or who will play Superman next, etc. No one knows who will direct Guardians 3 either, but it’s definitely not Taika Waititi.
(Via Hollywood Reporter & Comic Book Movie)