James Gunn Reveals WB Told Him Harley Quinn Didn't Have to Be in The Suicide Squad

The DC Extended Universe has long struggled with cohesiveness but there is hope that James Gunn's arrival will allow the franchise to finally thrive and flourish after years of failing to click with its fanbase as well as critics. Gunn's jaw-dropping DCEU signing is seen by many as a game-changer and his Marvel resume pretty much speaks for itself. Early reviews are in for The Suicide Squad and they've been generally positive, pretty much proving that Warner Bros. made the right call to have Gunn on board.

Ahead of the film's theatrical and streaming debut, Gunn revealed an interesting new detail about the project in an interview with New York Times. According to the Guardians of the Galaxy director, when they were negotiating about the film, WB requested him to use Harley Quinn in the project for obvious reasons. But what's shocking is that the studio apparently also gave Gunn the final say about utilizing the character, saying that if he didn't have any plans of including Harley, they would've been cool with it.

He reveals: "I wanted to create what I thought of as the Suicide Squad. For me to react to David's movie would make it the shadow of David's movie. I wanted it to be its own thing completely. When Warner Bros. said they wanted me to do this, I watched the first movie for the first time, and I called them back and said, ‘What do I have to keep from this movie?'. And they said, ‘Nothing'. They said, ‘Listen, we would love it if Margot's in the movie but she doesn't have to be. You could come up with all new characters or you could keep all the same characters.'"

Also Read:The Suicide Squad: James Gunn Admits He Wasn't Interested in Using Jared Leto's Joker

The idea of Margot Robbie not being involved in The Suicide Squad is unfathomable but what's truly intriguing is the fact that WB was willing to go out of its way just to meet Gunn's demands for the film. We've all heard stories from DCEU directors like Zack Snyder and Patty Jenkins how the studio wouldn't allow them to do things the way they want to so James getting free rein is absolutely baffling.

The Suicide Squad hits cinemas and HBO Max on August 5th, 2021.