‘The Shallows’ Director Becomes Frontrunner To Helm ‘Suicide Squad 2’, As Film Gets New Treatment By ‘Avengers’ Scribe

Warner Bros. seems to be moving fast with a sequel to 2016’s Suicide Squad!

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jaume Collet-Serra – who directed 2016’s shark thriller The Shallows – has emerged as the studio’s frontrunner to helm Suicide Squad 2.

You’ll remember that Warner Bros. had initially been eyeing Mel Gibson to helm the follow-up to DC’s financial hit about the motley group of supervillains, but after script delays pushed back the start of production, Gibson moved on and the studio was back to square one. Afterwards, since March, Collet-Serra has apparently been at the top of the studio’s wishlist.

We don’t know how far along negotiations are between the the WB and Jaume Collet-Serra, if they’ve begun at all, but hopefully with San Diego Comic Con less than two weeks away, we hear official confirmation from the studio soon.

The Hollywood Reporter also notes that Warner Bros. is eyeing a mid-2018 filming start for the sequel, but perhaps more exciting for comic book movie fans, they also report that a new treatment for the movie has just been written and handed in by Zak Penn. Penn, of course, wrote 2012’s monster hit The Avengers and also wrote the script for Steven Spielberg’s upcoming sci-fi film Ready Player One. This should put to ease the minds of those who agreed with the critics who panned Suicide Squad’s screenplay as being a jumbled mess. If Penn can do with the script for Suicide Squad 2 what he did for The Avengers, we can rest assured that we’re in for a fun ride whenever the sequel ends up hitting theaters.

Little is known about the direction in which Warner Bros. plans on taking the franchise that director David Ayer launched last year, but most people expect Will Smith and Margot Robbie to return as Deadshot and Harley Quinn respectfully.

How do you feel about the possibility of Jaume Collet-Serra directing Suicide Squad 2? Are you upset that Warner Bros. couldn’t seal the deal with Mel Gibson? In what direction are you hoping the DCEU takes the squad of supervillains? Do you have more faith in the film now that Zak Penn has been revealed to have been working on the project? Let me know in the comments below!