UPDATE: Variety has since updated their story, changing the production year from 2017 to 2018. As such, the speculation below regarding a rushed script is now null and void. So below, when mentioning them trying to shoot by the end of this year, pay it no mind.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Suicide Squad 2 has been one of the many DC question marks on the horizon. We all knew it was coming, but we weren’t quite sure when it would come, who would be in it, or who would take the helm from Suicide Squad director David Ayer.

Thanks to a new report from Variety, we now have an answer to a couple of those questions. According to the outlet, writer-director Gavin O’Connor — known for directing the Ben Affleck film The Accountant and for writing and directing the MMA flick Warrior, which stars Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy —  has officially signed on to write Suicide Squad 2 for Warner Bros. While his involvement as director is not yet a done deal, he is in talks to do so as well, and based on a new report from Deadline, it sounds like it’s just about set in stone.

This is both good and bad news.

Let’s start with the good. Warrior is one of my favorite films of all time and is probably my favorite sports movie of all time, and if you have yet to check it out, I highly recommend you do so. It is an emotional tour de force that, while cliché in nature, manages to ascend into something greater.

To have someone like O’Connor on board to write will hopefully mean he’ll bring in much-needed depth to the equation, which is something the first Suicide Squad lacked.

Now for the bad. According to the report, this film is a top priority, and is expected to hit production this fall. That’s right, there are four months left in this year, and they hope to begin production before the next season. This seems like a recipe for disaster.

While I usually have faith in studios having quick turnarounds for their films, the scripting stage isn’t the stage to take shortcuts. If you’ll recall, the first Suicide Squad was made by an amazing writer-director in David Ayer. However, he was only given six weeks to write the script, and it shows.

The fact that Warner Bros. seems so eager to put Gavin O’Connor through the same pressure tells me that they haven’t learned anything from their previous film.

That being said, I could be wrong. Perhaps he’s been on board for a while, and it’s only just now being announced. We’ll have to wait and see on that front.

But will O’Connor end up as director? If he does, we think it’d show a confidence in the script he’d written, so we certainly hope so.

Do you like Gavin O’Connor as a writer-director for Suicide Squad 2? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: Variety, Deadline