Director James Gunn is in for a busy couple of years thanks to working with both Marvel Studios and Warner Bros. He’s set to direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and the GOTG holiday special for release in 2022 and ‘23, and he's delivering The Suicide Squad for the DCEU in less than three months.
Throughout Gunn’s films, he’s never shied away from killing off major characters.
Although Vin Diesel’s Groot returned after Guardians of the Galaxy, Michael Rooker’s Yondu met his demise four years ago in Vol. 2. Teases have already been laid out for similar deaths in The Suicide Squad, especially with a cast of over two dozen Hollywood megastars.
Gunn is known as a very active personality on Twitter, which he used to share what’s been happening to him with all of these death rumors.
JAMES GUNN TALKS DEATH TOLL
The Suicide Squad director James Gunn took to Twitter to discuss how fans are threatening him over characters potentially dying in The Suicide Squad.
Gunn referenced a chat he had with Den of Geek News, commenting on how he gets these kinds of threats “Every. Single. Day:”
This morning on IG: “This is a threat. If you kill (character name redacted) I will hatecrime you.” Every. Single. Day. https://t.co/LVlRfMTUG2
Regardless of the negativity, Gunn revealed that most of the comments he’s seen on the matter are positive. He continued by saying he just tries to “stay focused on what [he loves] to do:”
If you read the comments below this thread, they’re someone around the average of 75 or 50 positive to 1 negative - too many artists get bogged down in the negative ones & grow numb to the positive ones. I try not to get bogged down in either & stay focused on what I love to do. https://t.co/sD8DMzqwgM
Going into specifics, Gunn spoke on how he wrote the “basic story outline early” in his process of making the movie.
I wrote the basic story outline early in the process. Another character died when I did my first rewrite.
NO SPOILERS FROM JAMES GUNN
In the same way that Gunn is no stranger to killing off key players in his movies, he’s also never been one to spoil key plot points like that either. However, he makes it clear that events like this were planned out early on as he developed the story for his first DCEU outing.
As for the threats on social media, that seems to come with being one of the most active comic book movie personalities online. Additionally, with about two dozen big-name actors coming into play, both newcomers and returning stars from Suicide Squad, there are certainly enough candidates for characters who could bite the proverbial bullet.
No matter which anti-heroes live or die, it doesn't appear that these social media interactions with Gunn will stop anytime soon.
The Suicide Squad will debut in theaters and on HBO Max on August 6, 2021.
