James Gunn confirmed Marvel bosses had no idea he was directing The Suicide Squad when he was rehired for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
When sharing a wrap photo from The Suicide Squad on Instagram, Gunn answered a fan query on whether Marvel would have rehired the director without him working on DC's film first. Writing in the comments section, Gunn explained, "I know for a fact they would have as they didn't know about Squad when they first talked to me."
Gunn was beginning to work on the third volume in the Guardians of the Galaxy when he was fired from the Marvel Cinematic Universe after a series of controversial and archaic tweets made their way online. Gunn was then free to take over from David Ayer for the soft reboot of 2016's Suicide Squad. He was eventually rehired to resume work on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3.
Gunn's firing was one of the biggest scandals to hit the MCU and cast doubt over the franchise's future when the cast showed a united front. The likes of Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana and Chris Pratt signed a letter of solidarity backing Gunn's return, with Bautista being particularly angry over the studio's decision to part ways with the director. However, reports claimed the studio never looked for someone to replace Gunn and always planned to reinstate the overseer of the fan-favorite team.
Written and directed by James Gunn, The Suicide Squad stars Margot Robbie, Viola Davis, Joel Kinnaman, Jai Courtney, David Dastmalchian, John Cena, Joaquin Cosio, Nathan Fillion, Mayling Ng, Flula Borg, Sean Gunn, Juan Diego Botto, Storm Reid, Pete Davidson, Taika Waititi, Alice Braga, Steve Agee, Tinashe Kajese, Daniela Melchior, Peter Capaldi, Julio Ruiz, Jennifer Holland, Idris Elba and Michael Rooker. The film arrives in theaters Aug. 6, 2021.