James Gunn found out that he would be able to return for Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 one day after he’d already signed up to make The Suicide Squad for DC, he tells Empire. The director was briefly ousted from Marvel in the summer of 2018 after historic offensive joke tweets caused an online storm, with Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn stating that they were “indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values”. With his future at Marvel cut short, Gunn began talks with DC and picked The Suicide Squad as the property he most wanted to get stuck into – though Disney eventually reinstated Gunn in the MCU following a heartfelt apology for his old social media posts.
In Empire’s world-exclusive The Suicide Squad issue – featuring Gunn’s first interview about his new DC movie – the filmmaker reflected on reconnecting with Disney and Marvel. It is ultimately a happy ending, with Gunn set to finish The Suicide Squad before blasting back to the Guardians – though it did lead to some awkward conversations with his former studio. “It was a happy ending, but it was also scary, because I actually got the call from Alan Horn long before it was announced: it happened literally the day after I agreed to do The Suicide Squad,” says Gunn.
After hearing from Horn, Gunn knew he had to update MCU head honcho Kevin Feige on his next project – who, when told it was a DC movie, asked: “Is it Superman?” Gunn stated that it wasn’t Superman (“That was a possibility,” he tells Empire) and explained that he had chosen The Suicide Squad. Feige’s reaction? “Please, please make a good movie. Just… make a great movie.” While Marvel and DC have always been rivals – the ‘Big Two’ – in the comic book industry, Gunn hasn’t had to keep his latest project secret from his friends at the MCU. “Kevin knew who all those characters were for months before we revealed them at FanDome,” he says. “He still knows who the villain is. I think he’s pretty trustworthy with his NDA!”
Read Empire’s full The Suicide Squad world-exclusive feature, talking to Gunn about the winding road that brought him to DC, rediscovering the filmmaker he wanted to be, and much more – on sale now, and available to order online here.