Suicide Squad 2 reportedly held up due to Will Smith’s schedule

It must be pretty crazy at the Warner Bros/DC Comics offices at the moment – there is just so much going on with their DCEU future as well as the imminent release of Justice League, due in just over two months time.

One of the projects they have “fast-tracked” into production is the sequel to last year’s summer hit Suicide Squad, which despite getting a critical mauling grossed over $746million worldwide. And despite news that a Joker origin story and a Joker/Harley Quinn Natural Born Killers-style film on the horizon, Squad 2 is on the way – but there is a sticking point at the moment.

Variety reporter Justin Kroll has said that the production is being held up due to the availability of one of it’s stars, Will Smith. Smith, who played Deadshot in the first film, is fully booked up for the next few months (and longer) with his commitments to Disney’s remake of Aladdin (where he is playing the Genie) and Ang Lee’s Gemini, both of which are due to start shooting very soon.

So hearing at the earliest, SUICIDE SQUAD 2 won’t go in to production until fall 2018 because of Smith’s schedule with ALADDIN and GEMINI

— Justin Kroll (@krolljvar) August 29, 2017

Kroll also mentions that the actors part of DCEU aren’t tied to multiple films like those attached to Marvel are and as such they don’t have a schedule as to what is coming next thus the actors, namely Smith, Jared Leto and Margot Robbie, have taken on other projects. Indeed, this could also throw the Joker/Harley film into some doubt too. Jaume Collet-Serra (The Shallows) is directing Suicide Squad 2.

The next film in the expanded cinematic universe, Justice League, opens November 15th.