San Diego Comic-Con is the biggest convention in the entertainment world, and as such, it has become the ideal place for studios to make big announcements. Among those is Warner, who will have a couple of important panels this year, but will among its SDCC 2022 announcements be Suicide Squad 3? The DC Extended Universe has gone through a lot of changes since its beginning in 2013 with Man of Steel, as the studio has struggled to find the right tone for its superhero connected universe. In 2016, the DCEU introduced its first version of Task Force X in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, but it wasn’t as well-received as expected.

The underperformance of Suicide Squad and Joss Whedon’s version of Justice League led Warner Bros. to change its plans for the DCEU and completely changed the tone for some of its subsequent movies, and Task Force X was given another chance in a sequel. Now directed by James Gunn and titled The Suicide Squad, the movie introduced two new Task Force X teams, with almost all team members of the first one killed in the first 10 minutes of the movie, and the second one taking over the rest of the story. The second Task Force X team was formed by Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), and Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), who traveled to Corto Maltese to stop its government's destructive plans that consisted on using a giant alien starfish known as Starro the Conqueror.

The Suicide Squad was a critical success, with most praised going towards its story, Gunn’s direction, the performances of the main cast, and the movie’s visual style, but it was a box office disappointment, which has been attributed to the coronavirus pandemic, the movie’s availability on HBO Max, and its connection to the first Suicide Squad. Still, its success was enough to grant it a spin-off TV series focused on Peacemaker, but will there be a Suicide Squad 3 and could it be announced at SDCC 2022?

What’s Next For Suicide Squad? Spin-Offs Or A Sequel


Instead of planning a sequel to The Suicide Squad, James Gunn began working on the Peacemaker spinoff TV series while completing work on The Suicide Squad, with HBO Max ordering Peacemaker straight-to-series in September 2020. Peacemaker premiered on HBO Max in January 2022 and was a big success, but its season finale made it difficult for Suicide Squad 3 to happen, as Amanda Waller’s (Viola Davis) plans and Task Force X were revealed to the world. In addition to that, Gunn doesn’t have plans for Suicide Squad 3 for now, and even though in July 2021 he said he had ideas for it that went in a different direction from just assembling a new team, in June 2022 Gunn said that, while there had been discussions about Suicide Squad 3 and he was considering it for his next movie, he’s currently focusing on TV after the positive experience making Peacemaker.

It’s unlikely, then, that Suicide Squad 3 will be announced at SDCC 2022, but what could happen is the announcement of more of The Suicide Squad spinoff TV series. In addition to Peacemaker being renewed for a second season, Gunn shared in January 2022 that he’s working on a new TV project for DC based on a character from The Suicide Squad, though he hasn’t revealed who. An Amanda Waller spinoff TV series was announced to be in development in May 2022, so DC could share details about this project in SDCC 2022 and confirm Gunn’s other The Suicide Squad spinoff TV series along with who they will be based on. The future of The Suicide Squad is unclear but not in a negative way, as there are a couple of projects in development but no official announcements yet.