The Accountant 2 director reveals why his plans for DC’s Suicide Squad sequel were scrapped. Before James Gunn was hired to write and direct a sequel/soft reboot of 2016’s Suicide Squad, Warner Bros. had approached O’Connor to course correct the franchise. O’Connor had just directed The Accountant for Warner Bros. and had made a name for himself directing gritty character-centric stories like Warrior, Pride and Glory, and Jane Got a Gun. O’Connor signed to direct The Suicide Squad 2 in September 2017, but later departed the project in October 2018, moving over to re-team with The Accountant star Ben Affleck on The Way Back.
Speaking with Collider, O’Connor reveals that he left work on the Suicide Squad sequel due to disagreements with the studio. The director says how the constant changing leadership at Warner Bros. and DC led to a disagreement, as a newly appointed head of the company seemingly wanted O’Connor to rework his concept into more of a comedy after having already worked on it for nearly a year. The disagreement on what the Suicide Squad sequel should be led to O’Connor departing the project. The director said:

“It’s another example of the dysfunction of our industry. I had a very specific take. They wanted to do it. I think I was probably three-quarters of the way into the script when they brought in a new regime and all the DC people I was working with were gone. I was writing on the lot, I got a little bungalow there; my writing partner and I would just meet there and write every day. There was a knock on the door, and it was the new DC president. He said, ‘So where are you with the script?’ I said ‘It’s almost done,’ and he said ‘Can I read it?’ And I said, ‘Well, you can read it when it’s finished.’ A couple of weeks later, I gave it to him, and he said ‘Can you make it a comedy?’ And I said, ‘That’s not what I wrote, and that’s not the agreement I have with the studio.’ He wanted me to make it into a comedy, and I was like, all right, I guess I won’t be working here.”

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The studio executive O’Connor appears to be referring to is Walter Hamada, who was appointed President of Warner Bros. Pictures for DC film productions from January 2018 to October 2022. The timeline adds up to what information is available about the DCEU. O’Connor joined the DC project before Justice League hit theaters when Jon Berg and Geoff Johns ran DC films briefly. However, after Justice League’s critical and financial disappointment, Berg and Johns were replaced by Walter Hamada as the head of DC Films at the start of 2018. The same month O’Connor left the project, James Gunn was hired to write and direct The Suicide Squad following Disney firing him from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Gunn did deliver a humorous version of The Suicide Squad, but also with plenty of emotion that eventually landed him the job as DC Studios Co-CEO alongside Peter Safran.
How Gavin O’Connor’s ‘Suicide Squad’ Would Change the DCU

Warner Bros.

Gavin O’Connor revealing that his Suicide Squad sequel would have been centered on Deadshot in a father-daughter story is interesting, given that a hint of that idea seems to have been carried over into James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, with the character of Bloodsport seemingly filling in for Deadshot due to scheduling conflicts with Will Smith. Like Deadshoot, Bloodsport is also a deadly assassin who serves as a field leader for the Suicide Squad and has a daughter.
Rumors had circulated that O’Connor’s pitch for The Suicide Squad saw the team going up against Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam. However, the validity of this rumor is up in the air, as by the time O’Connor had signed on to direct The Suicide Squad, the decision had already been made to give Black Adam a solo film. Black Adam would end up being directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, one of the frontrunners to helm The Suicide Squad before O’Connor was hired.
The late 2010s and early 2020s were an interesting time to be a DC film. Plenty of films were announced that never happened, and in the case of Batgirl, a whole movie was completed that will never be released. Had Warner Bros. and DC moved forward with O’Connor’s vision, the DC film universe might be a very different place. Johnson might not have flexed as much creative control as he did on Black Adam (or maybe he would have), and Gunn might not have gotten the chance to do a DC movie, leading him to his position now as the overseer of an entirely new DCU slate that includes this summer’s Superman. It makes one consider how one simple film can have so many lasting ramifications.
Source: Collider

Suicide Squad

Release Date

August 5, 2016

Runtime

123 minutes

Sequel(s)

The Suicide Squad