Despite it releasing before he took over as DC Studios co-CEO, James Gunn has confirmed that his movie The Suicide Squad is DCU canon. So, unsurprisingly, there have been a few questions about how this works, especially as Superman is mentioned in the 2021 movie.
During Gunn's new The Suicide Squad: Is it Canon? Podcast, co-host and Peacemaker's John Economos actor Steve Agee read out a question from a fan asking if The Suicide Squad really is canon to the DCU, did Bloodsport really shoot Superman. DC fans will remember that the 2021 movie finds Bloodsport sitting in jail due to shooting and taking down the hero with a Kryptonite bullet.
Gunn answered, "There's a couple of things potentially that get in the way of being canon. One is time." Superman is set in 2025, four whole years after The Suicide Squad was released and presumably takes place. However, at the start of the first DCU Chapter One movie, we learn that Supermna has only been in commission for three years. To fix that, Gunn says he would have to push The Suicide Squad up to 2023 or 2024. " I don't think that's the biggest deal in the world," added the director.
The other issue is that at the start of Superman, which Gunn says is "most definitively canon," we learn that he has just been defeated for the very first time by Lex Luthor Ultraman. So, if that is Superman's first defeat, what happened with Bloodsport? "I don't necessarily think that flying around, not only perhaps taking your flying dog out for a walk or whatever he was doing and being taken down with a Kryptonite bullet and going to the hospital is a battle," explains Gunn. "It's not necessarily defeat. He was just shot."
However, it sounds as though Gunn is growing tired of dealing with dates. "People are always asking me about timelines. I think we have to chill out a little with the timelines," stated the DC boss. "It's not possible to make things perfectly line up."
The next DCU movie is Man of Tomorrow, arriving July 9, 2027. For more, keep up with all the upcoming DC movies and TV shows on the way.
