Warrior director Gavin O'Connor recently opened up about his planned ‘Suicide Squad’ sequel and why he ultimately departed the project.
"What happened there was I wrote a deal to write a script, and they knew what I was writing," O'Connor said in an interview with The Playlist. "At that level, with those kinds of movies, with that budget, no one's just going off and writing something without walking them through what the movie's gonna be, and everyone was cool with it."
O'Connor further explained, however, that the vision for the film changed following a change in leadership at DC, which no longer wanted the project to be dark. "What happened was during the latter part of writing the script there was a whole regime change at DC, and when that happened, they wanted it to be a comedy, and I'm like, 'I'm not writing a comedy,'" the director explained. "I mean, it [was] fun, but it's not a yuk-fest. And the new regime wanted a different movie than I was writing."
When asked if he was interested in seeing James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, or helming a different superhero film, O'Conner said "no" to both, explaining, "I have no interest [to see it], to be honest... '’m just doing my own thing."
It was announced back in 2017 that O'Connor had signed on to write and direct a sequel to David Ayer's 2016 DC Extended Universe film ‘Suicide Squad’. He, of course, departed the project, with DC and Warner Bros. nabbing ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ director Gunn, who went on to write and direct a reboot, The Suicide Squad. Gunn is also currently working on ‘Suicide Squad’ spinoff series, ‘Peacemaker’.—Screen Rant
In related news, O'Connor recently revealed that he's working on a new series that will serve as a spiritual sequel to 2011's Warrior. While the film followed MMA fighters Tommy (Tom Hardy) and Brendan (Joel Edgerton), the ‘Warriors’ series will follow two different female MMA fighters who compete in Sparta MMA competition.
Directed by James Gunn, ‘The Suicide Squad’ is in theaters now. ‘Peacemaker’ is expected to premiere on HBO Max in January 2022. —Screen Rant