James Gunn’s first DC movie The Suicide Squad, a sequel to the 2016 box office hit, will reportedly start filming this fall. The first film suffered from a turbulent post-production process that involved studio interference and heavy reshoots, and the critical response to Suicide Squad showed they couldn’t fix all of the problems. Despite this poor critical reception, audiences around the world supported David Ayer’s film to the tune of nearly $750 million. Ayer moved on to the Harley Quinn-led Gotham City Sirens, but a true sequel was still a priority.

After Gavin O’Connor joined and then left the project, Gunn was hired to write and eventually to direct a sequel to Suicide Squad. He got his big break with the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the director of the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies, but his schedule freed up tremendously after Disney fired him after some old tweets resurfaced. With a creative mind like Gunn attached to The Suicide Squad, Warner Bros. and DC have given him complete freedom with the project. They’ve already given the film a 2021 release date, and now we may know when filming will begin.

According to Deadline, Gunn is hoping to start production on The Suicide Squad this September in Atlanta. This would give the sequel just under two years to complete filming and go through the entire post-production process. Considering Gunn has previously done as much with Marvel in roughly a years time for each Guardians film, the additional time may just be an added luxury to working with DC.

The news of a possible production schedule comes on the heels of reports that Will Smith won’t return as Deadshot for the sequel. This is reportedly due to a scheduling conflict, so the filming schedule must be fairly locked in for WB and Gunn to not move around the filming start date to accommodate Smith’s busy schedule. And even though the sequel will be without Smith, it’s still expected to feature Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn.

What does make this sense of urgency to start production on The Suicide Squad a bit surprising is the previously set August 2021 release date though. WB and DC have largely been operating under a production timeline of about 18 months from the start of filming to the theatrical launch. If The Suicide Squad really does begin production this fall, Gunn could very well have the movie done and ready to hit theaters much earlier than WB currently has currently planned. This is completely hypothetical, but it may even be done in time for a late 2020 release. We’ll have to wait and see if The Suicide Squad does stick to this schedule though before we think too much about a new and earlier release date.

MORE: Casting James Gunn’s New Team For Suicide Squad 2

Source: Deadline

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