Five months ahead of the film's release, Warner Bros. is already planning a Suicide Squad sequel.
According to The Wrap, the studio plans to bring David Ayer back on board to direct a followup in 2017. Ayer will shoot Suicide Squad 2 after his recently announced cop thriller Bright, which will also star Will Smith.
This adds on to an already massive slate of DC superhero films in production at Warner Bros. Though only a single one has been released as part of this new series, Man of Steel, Warner currently has 12 projects that have been announced or that are actively in the works: Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Justice League Part One, The Flash, Aquaman, an untitled Batman movie, Shazam, Justice League Part Two, Cyborg and Green Lantern Corps. Now Suicide Squad 2 will be squeezed in there somehow.
Batman v. Superman will serve as the jumping off point into many of these solo movies, introducing the new Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and the Flash. That means Warner Bros. is really counting on the film's success, as Dawn of Justice being a flop might dramatically alter their plans. And that's not just a hypothetical: According to a recent rumor, the studio is extremely nervous that the superhero brawl won't do as well as it needs to at the box office, as we previously reported.
Suicide Squad hits theaters on Aug. 5. It stars Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Cara Delevingne, Jai Courtney and Joel Kinnaman.