The Suicide Squad's Jai Courtney teases sequel that's not quite a sequel

Jai Courtney has revealed that The Suicide Squad will take the franchise in a new direction, thanks to new cast members and a new director.

The Australian actor, who plays Captain Boomerang, told Collider: “It’s not necessarily even a strict sequel, is the truth. It’s different, man, but people are gonna have a ball with it. I hope it’s massively successful.”

The highly anticipated follow-up may have a confusingly similar name to the 2016’s Suicide Squad (there’s an extra ‘the’ this time), but appears to take the characters down a whole different path.

Courtney added: “It’s sad to see some of my castmates not involved, but I'm so thrilled to welcome a whole bunch more in. And I think it frees up the direction in which this franchise can take. It cracked things open in a way that we now won’t know what to expect from the next time.”

Some of these new cast members include Idris Elba as Bloodsport, John Cena as Peacemaker and Pete Davidson as Blackguard. It’s not all new faces – Margot Robbie will return as Harley Quinn and Viola Davis will reprise her role as Amanda Waller. Meanwhile, Guardians of the Galaxy’s James Gunn takes over from David Ayer, who directed the first movie.

“It’s very funny,” Courtney said. “It’s what you’ve come to expect from this kind of film. People are going to have a great time with it.”

Gunn was fired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2018, and Warner Bros were to quick to sign him up to helm The Suicide Squad. The filmmaker has since been reinstated as director of Guardians 3 and the threequel will come after The Suicide Squad which is due to arrive on the big screen in August 2021. In the meantime, check out the best superhero movies of all time.