Summary

• Several planned Suicide Squad movies never materialized, including Justin Marks' unmade version and David Ayer's original cut, which was drastically altered by Warner Bros. executives.
• Despite the success of the 2016 Suicide Squad, spin-offs centered around Deadshot, Gotham City Sirens, and Joker were planned but did not come to fruition.
• James Gunn's The Suicide Squad received positive reception, but a sequel is not happening as Gunn focuses on expanding the DC Universe with TV series like Peacemaker and Waller, alongside the rest of Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters.

In the modern age of superhero cinema, several Suicide Squad movies have been made and even more have been attempted; here is every one of the planned projects that did not happen and why. Since 2016 and the release of David Ayer's Suicide Squad, the DC villain team has grown in popularity. This led to James Gunn's standalone sequel The Suicide Squad in 2021 and continued the resurgence of the brand on film.

However, despite these two projects being made, several others based on the Suicide Squad were planned. Be it in the James Gunn's DCU timeline to earlier attempts and beyond.

5 Justin Marks' Unmade Suicide Squad

DC's earliest attempt at crafting a Suicide Squad film began in 2011. Justin Marks, known at the time for writing Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, was hired to write the screenplay. As explored by Bleedingcool.com, Marks' original script tied very closely to the first-ever run of the Suicide Squad in DC Comics. This extended to the group the Suicide Squad would be facing, the DC villain team Onslaught. The Suicide Squad's roster would have consisted of Deadshot and Captain Boomerang who eventually appeared in 2016's film, alongside DC characters like Rick Flag, Jaculi, Mindboggler, Blockbuster, Vixen, and Multiplex.

Despite the script being written, Justin Marks' version of the film did not come to light. Instead, Warner Bros. repositioned the script as part of the fledgling DCEU and hired David Ayer to rewrite and direct the project by 2014. This led to 2016's Suicide Squad which had several issues of its own before the 2021 reboot/sequel by James Gunn.

4 David Ayer's Real Suicide Squad

While the 2016 Suicide Squad was released in theaters with David Ayer's name attached as the directorial credit, it has since come to light that the finished project did not reflect the film crafted by the director. Just as was the case for 2017's Justice League and the calls for the Snyder cut to be released, fans have been imploring that Squad. According to Ayer since his ties with DC were cut, his version of Suicide Squad was drastically altered in the editing room by Warner Bros. executives.

After the negative reaction to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Warner Bros. essentially panicked and wished to move their burgeoning shared universe away from the darker tone that Snyder had established. The first casualty of this change was David Ayer's film, which originally matched the tone of Snyder's DCEU much more closely. In the years since Ayer began speaking out about this, several scenes have been leaked from Ayer's Suicide Squad which prove just how drastically the original product was altered.

One change was that Jared Leto's Joker had a reduced role in the theatrical release, altering this iteration of Joker while also removing important history with Harley Quinn. Other characters in the film - like Killer Croc and Captain Boomerang - had more history to them which was coupled with a romance between Quinn and Deadshot to mean the team was portrayed significantly differently in Ayer's film. These elements, combined with a generally darker tone that was altered by the theatrical cut's usage of upbeat, popular soundtrack choices and changes to the film's villain, means that David Ayer's Suicide Squad is one film based on the titular team that never happened.

3 Suicide Squad 2

Interestingly, David Ayer was offered the chance to direct a sequel to Suicide Squad despite the overwhelming changes made to his original project by Warner Bros. Ultimately, David Ayer ed on Suicide Squad 2, which is not a surprise given the tumultuous post-production process of the first film. The reason this film was considered was due to the box office success of 2016's Suicide Squad. The film received $747 million at the worldwide box office against a $175 million budget. As such, a sequel was planned that Ayer rejected and WB eventually reshaped into Gunn's 2021 reboot marking yet another Suicide Squad film that did not pan out.

2 2016 Suicide Squad Spin-Offs

Following the success of 2016's Suicide Squad, a sequel was not the only movie planned in connection to the film. The box office success meant that WB did not overly care about the film's negative critical reaction and instead leaned into connections to Suicide Squad. As such, several spin-offs of the original film entered development that also did not come to fruition.

Deadshot

One of the central characters of 2016's Suicide Squad was Will Smith's Deadshot. Deadshot was one of the more compelling of the titular team in the film's theatrical cut, receiving much more depth than his peers and played excellently by Will Smith. Due to this, alongside Suicide Squad's commercial success, a Deadshot spin-off was confirmed to be in talks by Smith himself on the actor's YouTube channel as seen below. Ultimately, the film did not happen due to WB's restructuring of the franchise.

Gotham City Sirens

Despite turning down the chance to direct a sequel to Suicide Squad, Ayer did take on one of the film's spin-offs. Given the overwhelmingly positive reaction to Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, WB and Ayer confirmed a spin-off was in the works based on DC Comics' Gotham City Sirens. The film was set to feature Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy as the titular trio, yet the film was eventually replaced by 2020's Birds of Prey. While still not canceled officially, the film is on hold and is unlikely to happen given the reboot of the franchise with Gunn's DCU.

Joker

According to a report by Variety, Jared Leto's Joker was one of the characters WB was interested in awarding a spin-off to after Suicide Squad's success. This is certainly ironic considering Leto's Joker was one of the characters that suffered the most following WB's changes to Ayer's cut of Suicide Squad. Regardless, the film did not happen, instead becoming 2019's Oscar-winning Joker centered on a different iteration of the Clown Prince of Crime played by Joaquin Phoenix.

Harley Quinn vs. The Joker

The final spin-off rumored to spawn from Suicide Squad was a Harley Quinn vs. The Joker movie. Little was known about this project other than the return of Robbie and Leto in the titular roles. Rumors stated that Jaume Collet-Serra was in talks to direct which makes sense given he was a frontrunner for Suicide Squad 2 after Ayer ed and eventually went on to collaborate with DC with 2022's Black Adam. Other than that, the film went radio-silent and ultimately did not come to fruition.

1 The Suicide Squad 2

Following the positive critical reception of The Suicide Squad in 2021, James Gunn began developing several other projects from the film. One of these was the TV series Peacemaker centering on the character played by John Cena from the original film. Also, Gunn confirmed in an interview with The Playlist that talks had been held for a sequel to The Suicide Squad, only centering on another version of the team with a brand-new roster. However, when Gunn appeared on Michael Rosenbaum's Inside of You podcast in 2023, the filmmaker confirmed a sequel to The Suicide Squad would not happen.

Gunn cited his positive experiences with Peacemaker as a reason for this, stating he wished to carry on that sect of the DC Universe on TV. This is bolstered by the announcement of Waller, a TV series centering on the titular character, connected to both Peacemaker and the 2021 film. The reason for The Suicide Squad 2 not happening also stems from Gunn's new role as the head of DC Studios. Gunn is in full flow crafting the DCU and the entire franchise's future meaning a sequel to the 2021 film is yet another Suicide Squad movie that has not happened.