Academy Award winning film Suicide Squad (I can’t believe I said that) was a mess, to say the least. From its muddled plot, thin characters and god-knows-what-Ayer-was-doing direction, it really crapped the bed in what could have been a pretty fun film. Even Margot Robbie’s enigmatic performance as Harley Quinn couldn’t save the film but it did prompt a sequel. Suicide Squad was written by director David Ayer but the film is taking a different route this time around as Warrior director, Gavin O’ Connor will be directing and writing. It now seems like he’ll be getting some help as Todd Stashwick from Gotham will serve as co-writer.
Stashwick made a guest appearance during an episode of DC Movie News and revealed that he is co-writing the script for Suicide Squad 2. Stashwick is known for playing Richard Sionis AKA The Mask in the crime series Gotham. He spoke on how he got involved in the process after working with O’Connor on Jane Got a Gun. He said:
We sat down, he started picking my brain, and he could see that this is something that I have a deep passion for and I understand genre. That’s kind of what I like to write in. And then once we started bouncing ideas back, there’s a third writer, David Bar Katz, the three of us are writing it together. And so once we started talking and just bouncing ideas back and forth, he was like ‘This is the team. This is who I want for this.’”
He also revealed that Geoff Johns (who co-wrote the story for Aquaman) will is also be involved in the scripting process. Stashwick does not have any previous writing credits but has been working on several projects including the cancelled unnamed Star Wars video game by Visceral Games. He does know the universe however and is passionate about the characters revealing that Harley Quinn and Amanda Waller are among his favorite characters in the Suicide Squad comics.
It also seems that Stashwick will place more emphasis on the scripting process and is looking to get this one right. If all goes well with the script, it’s up to O’Connor to pull this off.
