Considering the oddities that occurred in 2016, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised at anything nowadays. If you’d asked Suicide Squad fans, and you might have had trouble finding many, who they’d like to direct the sequel, they probably wouldn’t have suggested Mel Gibson. But apparently that’s exactly who Warner Bros. is eyeing.
Early talks are underway, though the studio is also reportedly intrigued by Daniel Espinosa (Safe House), Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies) and Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland). After the major disappointment of the first film, the studio seems willing to take a leap of faith in order to create something memorable.
Gibson is fresh off an Oscar nomination for Hacksaw Ridge, and has seemingly been accepted back into Hollywood after being practically blacklisted for close to a decade following a barrage of anti-Semitic remarks and a drunk driving arrest in the mid-2000s.
The first Suicide Squad film was a financial success but caught backlash for its depiction of women and minorities, but if Warner Bros. are intent on hiring Gibson it seems those worries – regarding both the film and Gibson’s transgressions – are the last thing on their mind.
Gibson’s bounce back has already led him to sign on for the Daddy’s Home sequel and Dragged Across Concrete, the new film from Bone Tomahawk director, S. Craig Zahler.
The potential hiring of Gibson continues DC’s mild panic about their extended universe, with Ben Affleck rumoured to want to cut ties with the Batman character, while the standalone The Flash film has already lost its director and been subject to rewrites.
If DC and Warner Bros. think hiring Gibson will give them some headlines, they’d be right. Just don’t expect them to be good ones. And expect plenty of people to be willing Suicide Squad 2 to receive the same critical mauling as the first film.
#Peace.Love.SuicideSquad
