While there’s still no official word from Warner Bros. on the rating of the upcoming DC superhero movieThe Suicide Squad, we at least know the script wasn’t exactly playing it safe. As Warner Bros. was building out its DC Universe, there were rumors thatDavid Ayer’s 2016 filmSuicide Squadmight be released with an R-rating. Ultimately Warner Bros. went with a PG-13 for that film, but what a difference oneJokermakes.
Indeed, fresh off the cool $1 billion thatJokerraked in at the box office despite a hard R-rating, it sounds like Warner Bros. let writer/directorJames Gunn“off the leash” so to speak with his new filmThe Suicide Squad. The film is partly a follow-up to the 2016 movie in that it feature characters who first appeared in that film (includingMargot Robbie’s Harley Quinn andJai Courtney’s Captain Boomerang), but it’s also very much its own thing as Gunn is introducing his own Suicide Squad team in a ragtag movie that’s been described asa “gritty 70s war movie.”
That grit doesn’t come without humor, however, asJoel Kinnaman– who reprises hisSuicide Squadrole of Rick Flagg – revealed in an interview withTHRthat every page of Gunn’s script made him laugh. Oh, and he described the screenplay as “heavily R-rated”:
“That movie is going to be insane. The script is so funny. Every page of that script was funny, and every page made me laugh. James just has this command of that genre, but also over every aspect of comedy and even the marketing. He just understands the world so well, and since he wrote it, he really reinvents not just the concepts, but also the characters. For me, it was like I did my first comedy, but it’s like heavily R-rated.”
Kinnaman went on to say in the same interview that he worked with Gunn to hone his comedic skills, so it should be interesting to see how Rick Flagg develops in this new movie – or how closely he’ll resemble the version of the character we saw in the first one.
Speaking of which, the actor isn’t entirely unaware of the reputation of the firstSuicide Squad, and while he had kind things to say about his fellow actors, he seemed to acknowledge the movie itself didn’t live up to expectations:
“There was more energy put into making the movie the second time around. The first time around, there was a lot of energy put into everything around us. (Laughs.) But no, [the cast are] such good people. It’s also something about the whole concept of being a squad. There was never a bad ego on either of these films; not the first or the second one.”
We got our first look atThe Suicide Squadat DC FanDome and it appears to be absolutely insane in the best way. This is very muchThe Dirty Dozenby way of James Gunn, and to hear that it is most likely going to be released as an R-rated movie – Gunn’s first R-rated film since 2010’sSuper– is extremely exciting.
For more onThe Suicide Squad, check outour full breakdown of who’s playing who in the cast. The film is scheduled to hit theaters on June 26, 2025.
