James Gunn has set out to clear up the DCU's canon once again – but it's only given us more questions.
In his new podcast, The Suicide Squad: Is it Canon?, Gunn came to the conclusion that the film is mostly canon, and is in fact the DCU's first canon film.
"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 that we can pretty much say the entire movie is canon," he continued. "I don't think there's a problem. Now, maybe somebody's going to come to me on Threads – and I accept the challenges in trying to answer them – with something that can't be canon within this movie, and that's okay, because we're going to make mistakes, we're going to make mistakes in this movie, we're going to make mistakes in other movies. But for the most part, I think that it actually fits much more easily into canon than Peacemaker season 1 does. So, I think that we can actually say that yes, not only is The Suicide Squad canon, but it's the first canon film in the DCU, and that everybody should go watch it right now on HBO Max."
That raises a lot of questions – The Suicide Squad takes place in the old DCEU, not the new DCU, and Gunn has previously said that Blue Beetle is the first DCU character and Superman is the first DCU film. Plus, there's a chance that Harley Quinn might change if Margot Robbie doesn't return in the future.
"I love [Robbie] as Harley, I don't know if she wants to play Harley again. She may be over that," Gunn admitted candidly elsewhere in the podcast, before explaining that he would very likely use the character again, and, "if Margot wants to play her, I'll bend over backwards to explain that in the world. But if she doesn't, right, then I might go with somebody else, where I don't have to be attached to what happens to Harley in this movie. That's really the situation."
James Gunn talks about Harley’s backstory and says he doesn’t know if Margot wants to return as Harley, but if she does, he’ll bend over backwards to explain everything. https://t.co/5zKJHeg9SpOctober 29, 2026
Still, though, the movie otherwise does slot into canon fairly neatly, as it introduces us to Peacemaker and involves the death of Rick Flag Jr., which sets up Rick Flag Sr.'s storyline in Peacemaker season 2 and beyond.
In the same podcast, Gunn also revealed that the DCU Batman will be cast soon, and he'll be around the same age as Superman.
The next DCU movie is Man of Tomorrow, which arrives on July 9, 2027. While you wait, check out our guide to all the upcoming DC movies and TV shows for everything else that's in the works.
