Once Birds of Prey turned out to be a huge disappointment at the box office after becoming the lowest-grossing installment in the DCEU’s history, there were reports making the rounds that The Suicide Squad could end up being forced into adopting a PG-13 rating to avoid a similar fate. At the time, there was no official word on whether or not James Gunn’s soft reboot would be R-rated, but based on recent comments from the cast, it appears that the team’s second outing is going all in on the heightened levels of comic book violence.
You could make the argument that Birds of Prey didn’t really need an R-rating, when all it really boiled down to were some additional spurts of claret and a few swears, but the core concept of The Suicide Squad has always felt like a much better fit for the mature classification. Being edited to appeal to a family audience was the least of David Ayer’s concerns on the first movie, but after his replacement admitted that Warner Bros. had given him complete creative freedom. it seemed as though more blood and guts was a mere formality.
In fact, during a recent panel to promote the pic, John Cena revealed that not only is The Suicide Squad going to be graphic, but audiences should come prepared with a change of underwear just in case.
“The Suicide Squad is, I would also say it’s quite graphic. The Suicide Squad is gonna make you sh*t your pants, so bring a change of pants. Because you’re not ready.”
Cena is already poised to stick around the DCEU for a while longer with his Peacemaker having been awarded an HBO Max spinoff, but given that the series is rumored to be a prequel, you can’t guarantee that he’ll make it out of The Suicide Squad alive. In fact, anyone could be a prime candidate to be killed off, such is the unpredictability that Gunn’s bringing to the party this time around.