The Suicide Squad director James Gunn has revealed the runtime for the second live-action film set to premiere in August. Gunn's take on the story is a loose sequel to David Ayers' Suicide Squad but will be more of a soft reboot. A few characters from the original film will return, such as Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, while others surprisingly will not, such as Will Smith's Deadshot. Gunn's take is a sequel to the comics and will be rated R, unlike its 2016 PG-13 counterpart.
While plot details are scarce, the film is based on DC Comics' Suicide Squad that has appeared in lineups since the 1950s. The story follows a gang of captured supervillains used by the government to embark on what they think are suicide missions. The Suicide Squad will center around Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), and Harley Quinn as they take on a mission to unearth secrets regarding a mysterious army compound. And for the DC Comics fans, the film will feature deep-cut characters such as Bloodsport, Peacemaker, and Weasel. Warner Bros. is aiming for an August 6 release date both in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.
Ahead of the film's release, Gunn took to Twitter to answer some fans' questions about The Suicide Squad, including its runtime. The director revealed the film's final runtime is 2 hours and 12 minutes. In a subsequent tweet, Gunn says he wrote, filmed, and edited the film, and it ended up at the 2+ hour length; it wasn't according to any plan. You can check out his tweets below.
The second Suicide Squad film will stand on its own, so those who missed the 2016 box-office hit won't have to watch it to understand the new movie. Gunn was swooped up by Warner Bros. and DC to direct and write the Suicide Squad sequel amidst his separation from Marvel and Disney. It is his first film since he was fired and rehired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which has led to production delays on that front.
And the two-hour runtime isn't out of character — the first Suicide Squad film ran for 2 hours and 17 minutes, so there's plenty to squeeze in the timeframe. Kinnaman previously said The Suicide Squad is Gunn's best film yet, so there's plenty riding on its release. However, after the spinoff Birds Of Prey film was a box-office flop, The Suicide Squad needs to garner as much hype as possible to get fans excited about the gang of comic supervillains again.
Source: James Gunn/Twitter
