The Suicide Squad rounds up the gang and chews up the scenery in first off-the-rails trailer for sequel

Let’s just call them the Supersized Squad. James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is gearing up to ransack theaters with its gang of rogue superhero mercenaries, and the sequel to 2016’s Suicide Squad has now dropped its first trailer. And from what we can see, apparently this jacked-up team has one squad goal: to prove that bigger is better.

The sequel has pretty much doubled the anti-hero count of the first film, putting it all on display in a jam-packed sneak peek that hints at bigger action, off-kilter laughs, and (hopefully) a way better film than its critically derided predecessor.

Check it out below (and a warning: some NSFW goodies in here):

The trailer is also available on YouTube.

“We don’t leave one of our own behind,” Rick Flagg (played by returning star Joel Kinnaman) says at top of the red-band trailer as the rejiggered team mounts some kind of rescue mission to retrieve Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) ... who apparently doesn’t need any kind of rescuing.

From there, audiences meet a veritable rogues’ gallery of nutjobs both new and old — from Idris Elba’s Bloodsport to John Cena’s Peacemaker — and all under the mercy of no-nonsense boss Amanda Waller (Viola Davis, back in the saddle), who lays down the deal for these erstwhile villains: Join the team for a suicide mission and they get 10 years off their prison sentence.

It’s a deja vu of the first film, but — with Gunn now at the helm — it’s decidedly weird, fun, and whacked-out. It also recalls the vibe of another Gunn film about an oddball band of misfits: Guardians of the Galaxy. There’s a whole potty-mouthed riff about eating "a big bag of d***ks,” and the film introduces what will clearly be the movie’s biggest scene-stealer: King Shark, a kinda Jaws meets Katy Perry’s “Left Shark” who literally chews up the scenery. Then, there’s a ginormous kaiju killer starfish. We’ll leave it at that. 

The Suicide Squad, which arrives on Aug. 5, features returning stars Margot Robbie ("Harley Quinn"), Viola Davis ("Amanda Waller"), Joel Kinnaman ("Rick Flagg"), and Jai Courtney ("Captain Boomerang") reprising their roles from the 2016 film, which was written and directed by David Ayer.

They’re joined by an all-star ensemble that includes John Cena ("Peacemaker"), Idris Elba ("Bloodsport"), Nathan Fillion ("T.D.K."), Pete Davidson ("Blackguard"), Peter Capaldi ("The Thinker"), David Dastmalchian ("Polka-Dot Man"), Alice Braga ("Sol Soria"), Storm Reid ("Tyla DuBois"), Sean Gunn ("Weasel"), Steve Agee ("King Shark," "John Economos"), Michael Rooker ("Savant"), Daniela Melchior ("Ratcatcher 2"), Flula Borg ("Javelin") and Sylvester Stallone as the voice of King Shark. Also onboard is Taika Waititi, though there are zip details on his role so far.

The original Suicide Squad film took a major critical drubbing, opening to dismal reviews that knocked its bizarre storyline, chaotic vibe, and an everything-but-the-kitchen sink approach that threw a whole bunch of new (if mostly unmemorable) characters on screen. Despite that, the film was a hit. It raked in $746 million worldwide and is still best known for two things: introducing Jared Leto as Joker, and giving everyone their first glimpse of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, who would go on to headline 2020’s Birds of Prey. (HBO recently said, though, that it has no plans to pursue a release of Ayer’s original cut of the film, similar to Zack Snyder’s Justice League.)

Gunn’s spin on the franchise will supposedly take it in a wholly different direction — aka, less supernatural (Cara Delevingne’s The Empress character was the Big Bad in the first film) and more espionage-focused. The sequel is also setting up what appears to be an expanded Suicide Squad universe: A spin-off TV series about Cena’s character, The Peacemaker, is currently in the works at HBO Max.

The Suicide Squad, meanwhile, is set to drop simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max on Aug. 5. Check out the poster and some production stills in the gallery below...