The Suicide Squad's James Gunn: 'I was given full freedom to kill anyone – and I mean anyone – by DC'

From the comics alone, fans should be wary of getting too attached to any of the members of filmmaker James Gunn's upcoming The Suicide Squad film. That he's already implemented several nods to The Dirty Dozen should be a secondary warning. Now it's strike three for those hoping that the entire cast would survive the DC superhero film, as Gunn has given an interview explaining that DC put all the characters' lives in his hands.

Speaking to Empire, Gunn said that his pseudo-sequel to Suicide Squad — filled with talent ranging from Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn to David Dastmalchian’s Polka Dot Man to John Cena's Peacemaker (the latter of which is actually getting his own HBO Max series from Gunn) — isn't safe for anyone in the cast.

“I think you know, from pretty close to the beginning, that all of the Guardians are good — apart from Nebula, who’s the outlier,” Gunn said. “But in The Suicide Squad, some of the characters end up being good, some end up being terrible. They don’t just get in fights and say they’re going to kill each other, they actually do get in fights and kill each other. You really don’t know who’s going to live and who’s going to die. I was given full freedom to kill anyone – and I mean anyone – by DC.”

That's in keeping with the spirit of the Suicide Squad comics, where in-fighting is common in every issue (especially during the '80s run by John Ostrander and Kim Yale that Gunn cites as an influence). That's one of the bigger changes from David Ayer's 2016 film, which took mostly from the New 52 version of the Squad. Gunn, for what it's worth, had one big complement to give Ayer.

“Listen, David Ayer’s gotten trouble for the movie,” Gunn noted. “I know it didn’t come out how David wanted it to come out. But he did one really, really great thing, and that is he picked fantastic actors to work with, and he dealt with these actors in building their characters in a really deep and fearless way. It’s something David definitely deserves to be lauded for, and it’s definitely added to this movie.”

And now those characters are going to die. Some, anyways. Perhaps to rub in his insider knowledge, Gunn hosted a small poll on his personal Twitter account, posting some teasing responses to those guessing:

Following in Gunn's footsteps, who do YOU think will survive being in The Suicide Squad once it hits theaters on Aug. 6, 2021?