'The Suicide Squad' is not a strict sequel, says Jai Courtney

Watch: Behind the scenes look at The Suicide Squad

Director James Gunn’s Suicide Squad sequel will take the franchise in a new direction and won’t be a strict follow-up, actor Jai Courtney has said.

The Australian star opened up about the hugely anticipated comic-book adaptation during a recent discussion with Collider, describing it as a “big a** movie again”.

Courtney admitted it was nice to see the “cool”, “different,” and “interesting” new characters that Gunn had “plucked from the depths of the canon” and put into the new film.

When the discussion turned to exactly how The Suicide Squad will line-up with David Ayer’s version, the similarly-titled Suicide Squad (no ‘The’), Courtney said: “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.”

Most of the anticipation for The Suicide Squad is because of Gunn’s involvement.

Read More: Jai Courtney teases new ‘feeling’ and ‘flavour’ in James Gunn’s 'The Suicide Squad'

After making his feature film debut with 2006’s Slither, Gunn shot to prominence with his work on Guardians Of The Galaxy and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2.

When Gunn was fired from Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 in July 2018, because of offensive jokes he had made on Twitter between 2008 and 2012, Warner Bros quickly signed him up for The Suicide Squad.

According to Courtney, Gunn’s script is “very funny”, and delivers “what you’ve come to expect from this kind of film”, while also freeing up “the direction this franchise can take”.

Read More: 'The Suicide Squad' will be ‘heavily R-rated,' promises Joel Kinnaman

“It cracked things open in a way that we now won’t know what to expect from the next time,” he said. “That’s cool for something like Suicide Squad.”

We’ll get to see exactly what Courtney means by that when The Suicide Squad is released on August 6 next year.

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