Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Birds of Prey
Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader.
The Roman Sionis a.k.a. Black Mask. Though Birds of Prey is a separate story from Suicide Squad, it included a couple of references to Harley's teammates from Task Force X and the events of the film.
Harley will be back in The Suicide Squad, directed by James Gunn. Although a couple of from Ayer’s squad will be back, the film is being labelled as a “standalone sequel” rather than a direct one – however, the events in Birds of Prey showed that The Suicide Squad will definitely be a sequel, even if Warner Bros. refuses to call it like that.
Warner Bros. Claims The Suicide Squad Isn’t A Sequel
A Suicide Squad sequel was announced to be in development before the first film was even out, with David Ayer set to return as director and Will Smith reprising his role as Deadshot. However, Ayer ended up exiting the project in favor of directing Gotham City Sirens (which DC ultimately dropped in favor of Birds of Prey), and the search for a new director began. Following his firing from Marvel Studios, James Gunn was approached by Warner to direct a DCEU film, and chose the Suicide Squad sequel.
In January 2019, the project was retitled The Suicide Squad, which according to producer Peter Safran was because the film is “a total reboot”. Months later, the film was described as a new take on this particular DC property rather than a direct sequel to Ayer’s film. The Suicide Squad will be set in the DCEU, which is why it brings back Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), and more, but Warner insists the film is a reboot or standalone sequel rather than a proper one, even if that doesn’t add up with what’s known about the film so far and with what Birds of Prey established.
Birds of Prey is a Direct Suicide Squad Follow-Up (For Harley Quinn)
the ending sets up her return in The Suicide Squad perfectly, with her going on her own way and starting a business with Cassandra Cain.
The Suicide Squad is Bringing Back the Original Cast
As mentioned above, The Suicide Squad will have most of the original cast back. Viola Davis will reprise her role as Amanda Waller, who was last seen in Suicide Squad’s mid-credits scene making a deal with Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck): he agreed to protect her from backlash against her role in the whole Enchantress mess in exchange for access to the government’s files on the metahuman community, and a document on Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) and Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa). This scene also hinted at Waller knowing that Wayne is Batman, telling him he looked tired and should stop working late nights, to which he replied she should shut down Task Force X or else he and “his friends” would do it.
Also coming back are Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), Ratcatcher (Daniela Melchior), and King Shark (voiced by Steve Agee). Also ing the fun are Idris Elba (who was initially approached to play Deadshot but Gunn and the studio decided to have him play another character, enabling Will Smith to return in a future sequel), John Cena, Storm Reid, Nathan Fillion, Peter Capaldi, Taika Waititi, and Pete Davidson, among many others.
Why Won’t Warner Bros. Call The Suicide Squad a Sequel?
The Suicide Squad has been referred to as a reboot, soft-reboot, and standalone sequel – everything but a direct one. Even without Jared Leto’s Joker showing up) – and taking into that Waller made a deal with a now gone version of Bruce Wayne, there will be a lot of things that will have to be changed to better fit the current DCEU.
It’s not outside the realm of possibility that Warner is choosing not to call The Suicide Squad a sequel simply because they want to detach from the first film and all the negativity it received. Suicide Squad was a box office success, but it was heavily criticized and is regarded as one of the weakest entries in the DCEU so far. Whatever the case, The Suicide Squad is closer to a proper sequel than anything else and Birds of Prey was good proof of that, leaving everything ready for Harley’s reunion with her former teammates and with Captain Boomerang on the run.
