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As soon as a second Suicide Squad movie was officially confirmed, being written and directed by James Gunn, there's been something of a question as far as how to classify the movie. Was it a sequel or was it a reboot? It was being called a "total reboot" at one point, but we now know that several, though certainly not all, of the actors and characters from the first film will be returning. So do you really need have seen David Ayer's Suicide Squad before you watch James Gunn's The Suicide Squad? Gunn has given fans an answer.
And that answer is, don't worry about it. A fan who has never seen the first film asked James Gunn on Twitter if he needed to do so before watching the sequel, and the director told him he would be fine coming into The Suicide Squad cold. Check it out below.
We know that The Suicide Squad will see a new team of random DC villains brought together for... some reason. The plot itself is still pretty much a mystery, but it seems clear that the it won't be directly connected to the events of the first film. Everything we have seen about The Suicide Squad has made the new movie look like it'll have the same basic setup, albeit with a new mission. While the two movies may have some characters in common, it doesn't seem like those returning faces will be bound by David Ayer's original.
The first Suicide Squad is currently available on HBO Max, which will also be the home of James Gunn's new take. You can use this link to sign up for the streaming service.
So if you haven't seen Suicide Squad, don't worry about it if you're considering checking out this one. Having said that, it might not be that common of an issue. David Ayer's Suicide Squad was a massive box office success, and so it seems likely that most of the people who will be interested in the new movie have already seen the first one.
Of course, that doesn't mean that the new movie won't include references to the previous film, or even other elements of the DC film universe. While crossovers have certainly not been a focus of DCEU films as of late, the universe itself exists. And the fact that characters like Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, and Amanda Waller will all be back in the sequel is no doubt purposeful. One has to imagine that Quinn and Boomerang working for Waller again will make them less than happy.
Not connecting The Suicide Squad to the first film in a way follows what we've seen elsewhere in recent successful DC films. Shazam! and Aquaman both technically take place in the same universe, but that fact doesn't play into the plots of either film. Keeping the references minimal helps broaden the audience, and so the new Suicide Squad could appeal to even more people than the original.
