Earlier today, the news broke that DC Studios is launching a one-off podcast to determine whether The Suicide Squad is DCU canon. It's not supposed to be released until tomorrow, but Spotify has accidentally shared the hour-long special as the "trailer" for the podcast.
So far, that's seen James Gunn confirm plans to cast a Batman who is close in age to Superman and reveal his uncertainty about whether Margot Robbie will reprise the role of Harley Quinn. Now, though, we have an answer to the biggest question of all: is The Suicide Squad part of the DCU?
Peacemaker Season 1 took place in the DCEU, but Season 2 was a DCU story that used a cleverly edited recap to make it so that the first batch of episodes took place in the same world as Creature Commandos and Superman. It's a little confusing for casual fans, and frequently raises questions about whether it would have been better for Gunn to say goodbye to his DCEU creations to focus on building a new world.
The lines have been blurred, though, and it's now official: The Suicide Squad is DCU canon. Gunn made the decision after asking his wife and Emilia Harcourt actress, Jennifer Holland, and Steve Agee for their opinion; they both agreed that the 2021 movie is canon.
"That settles it then. I think that The Suicide Squad is within the canon of the DCU. It's decided. I'd say we have one small asterisk, which is what exactly is the future of Harley Quinn. I want to be given a little leeway with this by the fans because I'm not sure exactly how that's going to manifest itself. But other than that, I think we can pretty much say the entire movie is canon. I don't think there's a problem."
"Maybe somebody is going to come to me on Threads, and I accept the challenges in trying to answer them...we're going to make mistakes in this movie and in other movies, but for the most part, I think it actually fits much more easily into canon than Peacemaker Season 1. Not only is The Suicide Squad canon, but it's the first canon film in the DCU."
Elsewhere in the podcast, Gunn confirmed that he believes Idris Elba's Bloodsport took down David Corenswet's Superman with a Kryptonite bullet and revealed that he's considering a DCU-set TV series revolving around The Suicide Squad's Abner Krill, aka Polka-Dot Man.
"I decided to make him the darkest and saddest character in this entire movie. And, in fact, interestingly enough, [I] have talked about developing a Krill TV show which would be about his mother and their many [superpowered] children," Gunn confirmed. "It's been discussed."
"It's not in active development, but we've talked about it because I think it would be interesting to see what happened to the rest of his family," he continued. "Where did they go, and what were they like back then?"
Is Gunn overestimating the popularity of The Suicide Squad? The movie was released to rave reviews during the pandemic, but only grossed $168.7 million at the worldwide box office. Despite that, it spawned two seasons of Peacemaker and brought characters like Harcourt and Weasel into projects like Black Adam and Creature Commandos.
You can hear more from Gunn on The Suicide Squad in the player below.