The Suicide Squad (film)

The Suicide Squad
Release poster
Directed by	James Gunn
Written by	James Gunn
Based on	Characters from DC
Produced by	Charles Roven Peter Safran
Starring	Margot Robbie Idris Elba John Cena Joel Kinnaman Sylvester Stallone Viola Davis Jai Courtney Peter Capaldi
Cinematography	Henry Braham
Edited by	Fred Raskin Christian Wagner
Music by	John Murphy
Production companies	DC Films Atlas Entertainment The Safran Company
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates	July 30, 2021 (2021-07-30) (United Kingdom) August 5, 2021 (2021-08-05) (United States)
Running time	132 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$185 million[2]
Box office	$168.7 million[3][4]

The Suicide Squad is a 2021 American superhero film based on the DC Comics team Suicide Squad. Produced by DC Films, Atlas Entertainment, and the Safran Company, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is a standalone sequel to Suicide Squad (2016) and the tenth film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The film was written and directed by James Gunn and stars Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Sylvester Stallone, Viola Davis, David Dastmalchian, Daniela Melchior, Michael Rooker, Jai Courtney, Peter Capaldi, Alice Braga, and Pete Davidson. In the film, several convicts join a task force known as the "Suicide Squad" in exchange for lighter sentences. They are sent to the South American island nation of Corto Maltese to destroy all traces of the giant alien starfish Starro the Conqueror before it falls into the local government's control.

David Ayer was set to return as director for a Suicide Squad sequel by March 2016, but in December he chose to work on other projects. Warner Bros. considered several replacements before hiring Gavin O'Connor in September 2017. He left due to creative differences, and Gunn was hired in October 2018 to write and direct the film after being temporarily fired by Disney and Marvel Studios as director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). He drew inspiration from war films and John Ostrander's 1980s Suicide Squad comics and explored new characters in a story separate from the first film's narrative, though some cast members do return from Suicide Squad. Filming took place from September 2019 to February 2020, primarily in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as in Colón, Panama, and Porto, Portugal. The film had the biggest sets ever built for a Warner Bros. production.

The Suicide Squad premiered theatrically in the United Kingdom on July 30, 2021. It was released in the United States on August 5, simultaneously in theaters and on the streaming service HBO Max. Although it underperformed at the box office after grossing just $169 million worldwide against a production budget of $185 million, the film received generally positive reviews from critics and became the most-streamed DCEU film on HBO Max. The film's box office performance was attributed to factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the film's availability on HBO Max, and its relationship to the first Suicide Squad.

Peacemaker, a spin-off television series starring Cena, debuted on HBO Max in January 2022, and Waller, another television series starring Viola Davis, is in development for Max. Both the film and its spin-offs were integrated into the succeeding DC Universe (DCU) media franchise co-created by James Gunn and Peter Safran, beginning with the animated series Creature Commandos (2024-present), which builds on both the film and Peacemaker's events, as well as the latter show's second season, which is set in the new continuity.^[5][6]