Now that James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad has hit theaters and HBO Max, a lot of fans are eager to see the movie and how it fits into the established DCEU lore. Now, while The Suicide Squad is neither a sequel nor a reboot of Suicide Squad, nor is it directly connected to Birds of Prey, due to the fact that is shares several characters with the first and one major character with the second movie, you might wonder whether you have to see these two movies before The Suicide Squad. Well, luckily for you, we at Fiction Horizon have all the answers!
No, you do not need to watch Suicide Squad or Birds of Prey in order to follow The Suicide Squad. Although it shares some characters with the two movies, Gunn’s movie doesn’t reference these movies and its plot is completely unrelated to the two movies, which means that you can watch it even if you haven’t seen the other two.
In today’s article, we are going to tell you whether you need to watch any movie before watching The Suicide Squad, seeing how it might contain elements from prior DCEU movies. You’re also going to find out what you need to know before watching The Suicide Squad. We’ve prepared an informative article for you, so keep reading to find out everything you need to know before watching James Gunn’s new superhero flick!
Do you need to watch Suicide Squad before watching The Suicide Squad?
Since The Suicide Squad is a standalone sequel to Ayer’s Suicide Squad from 2016 and there are several returning characters, the question we are asking ourselves now is more than valid. Usually, when sequels are concerned, you need to watch the earlier movies to get what is going on in the sequel, but since James Gunn’s movie is a standalone sequel, you don’t really need to watch Ayer’s film to follow the story of The Suicide Squad.
We are going to give you some more information ono the similarities and connections between these two movies in one of our later sections, but here, you need to know that their plots are completely unrelated and that there are absolutely no references to the earlier mission in Gunn’s movie. So, don’t worry, you don’t need to watch Suicide Squad, if you already haven’t, before The Suicide Squad.
Do you need to watch Birds of Prey before watching The Suicide Squad?
The only relevant connection between Birds of Prey and James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is the fact that they are both part of the DCEU. Okay, Harley Quinn appears in both movies, but, as you are going to see later in the article, this connection is more than superficial. The Suicide Squad is in no way connected to Birds of Prey and while it does not contradict it in terms of continuity, it ignores it completely.
This is, in all honesty, a good thing, as the two movies couldn’t be more different. This, of course, makes your job easier, as it means that you do not have to watch Birds of Prey before watching The Suicide Squad. Luckily for you, you can avoid this movie; yours truly wasn’t that lucky a year ago.
What do you need to know from Suicide Squad before watching The Suicide Squad?
As far as David Ayer’s movie is concerned, there are some connections between it and James Gunn’s movie, but these connections are only nominal and in the form of several characters appearing in both movies. These characters are Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), and Digger Harkness / Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), and they serves as a connection between these two movies but that is pretty much it. Even they themselves don’t reference their former mission or the other characters, so there are no further information you need to know before watching Gunn’s movie.
In case you’ve forgotten, in the movie, Amanda Waller puts together a team for the US government that is supposed to be used on high-risk assignments regardless of loss and therefore consists of dangerous criminals: the disturbed Harley Quinn, the professional killer Deadshot, the pyrokinetic ex-gangster El Diablo, the thief Captain Boomerang, the cannibal Killer Croc and the mercenary Slipknot.
All are recruited from Belle Reve Prison, placed under the command of Colonel Rick Flag, and fitted with an explosive nano-implant that can be used to kill them if they disobey. Flag’s friend, the archaeologist Dr. June Moone is possessed by a witch goddess, the Enchantress. With a horde of monsters, she creates a weapon and calls on her brother Incubus to help. Waller sends her team, the Suicide Squad, on the assumption that it is a terrorist attack on Midway City.
They are joined by Katana, who wields a mystical samurai sword and Flag serves as a bodyguard. While Slipknot is killed by the bomb implant while trying to escape, Harley succeeds in rendering hers harmless, and she escapes in a helicopter hijacked by Joker. However, they are shot down on the spot, and while Harley can still save herself, Joker appears to have died in the crash.
The Enchantress’s assistants manage to kidnap Waller. Thereupon, Flag releases the team from their assignment. However, they still follow him and track down the Enchantress and Waller in a flooded subway station. In the final battle, El Diablo sacrifices himself to hold Incubus over a bomb. In the fight against the Enchantress, however, the Suicide Squad is defeated.
When she asks her to submit to her, Harley approaches her, but only to cut out her heart. Killer Croc throws explosives into the world-destroying weapon of the Enchantress and Deadshot implosions it with one shot. Flag grabs the severed heart of the Enchantress, crushes it, and frees June. After they have successfully carried out their mission, the squad members receive reduced sentences and other privileges.
Returning to Belle Reve Prison, Harley is freed by Joker, who survived the helicopter crash.
Here is a trailer for the movie:
What do you need to know from Birds of Prey before watching The Suicide Squad?
As far as the Birds of Prey are concerned, there is even less that connects it with The Suicide Squad. Namely, Ayer’s movie was focused on the same team and had several identical characters, while Birds of Prey only has Harley Quinn, but in a completely different context than The Suicide Squad. Aside from the fact that Harley appears in both movies, there is absolutely nothing that connects these two movies and you won’t see any reference to Birds of Prey or the events thereof in The Suicide Squad.
In case you’ve forgotten, in the movie, after her separation from the Joker, Harley Quinn decides to emancipate herself and take her independence. But now that she is no longer under the protection of the famous Clown Prince of Crime, Harley realizes that many people want her skin in Gotham City and that they can now come after her without the risk of retaliation.
Among his enemies is Roman Sionis, aka Black Mask, the narcissistic and sadistic manager of a city club, who is particularly angry with Harley since she broke her driver’s legs. While Roman wishes to kill Harley, the latter offers to do him a favor and find for him the young Cassandra Cain, an orphan who stole a diamond containing the fortune of a mafia family having been shot, the Bertinellis. But when Harley reunites with Cassandra, she takes a liking to the young girl and takes her under her wing.
For her part, Renee Montoya, a city detective, does everything possible to have Roman arrested. She tries to recruit Dinah Lance, a singer at Roman’s nightclub who was recently promoted to the position of driver, as a mole. But Dinah, who hides meta-human abilities, does not wish to become a heroine, this path having caused the death of her mother as a child.
At the same time, a mysterious killer armed with a crossbow is prowling in Gotham City to assassinate mobsters and could well have a connection with this dark affair.
As we did above, here is a trailer for the movie:
Do you need to watch anything before watching The Suicide Squad?
As far as the movie’s plot is concerned, you needn’t watch anything before The Suicide Squad. We’ve already established that the two movies that have some connection to James Gunn’s movie aren’t something you need to see before The Suicide Squad, and the same goes for all other DCEU movies. Namely, Gunn’s movie is a standalone story that does fit into the same universe, but is narratively completely independent.
There is a scene that references Superman, but that event wasn’t depicted in any of the movies, so you don’t actually have anything to watch in terms of that scene; the scene was just establishing the continuity and nothing else. So no, you do not need to watch anything before The Suicide Squad, but you should take look at one of the trailers just to get a glimpse of how fun the movie is:
Do you need to know anything before watching The Suicide Squad?
As far as the information necessary for you to follow the movie is concerned, you don’t need to know much, actually, as James Gunn does a great job in explaining everything for you. We’ve told you what you needed to know from the two movies – and it isn’t much, really – so we won’t be repeating that here. Here, we can only say that we think that you should know something more about the movie’s villain, Starro the Conqueror, and what better place to learn it from than our linked article, right? The rest of the movie is explained quite well, so you don’t need to brush up on your comic book knowledge before watching it.
And that’s it for today. We hope you had fun reading this and that we have given you all the information you were looking for. See you next time and don’t forget to follow us!