Are ‘Suicide Squad’ Reshoots A Result Of ‘Batman V Superman’ Criticism?

Recent rumors about the Suicide Squad film reshoots have spread very fast. The news broke via Birth.Death.Movies. Site contributor Devin Faraci claims to have spoken to a source who told him millions of dollars of reshoots will happen on the set of the Suicide Squad to add more jokes to the film.

“I have since spoken to more sources and I understand that the reshoots are happening with the Suicide Squad right now, as recently as this week and that they’re big – tens of millions of dollars big. And they’re adding more humor and lightness into the film. “

The description of the Suicide Squad comic via the DC comics website appears to present a violent yet highly comical story involving a group of supervillains. Harley Quinn (played by Margo Robbie in the film) provides most of the laughs in the comic. But could the film really use a boost of laughs to satisfy the normal movie crowd?

According to Collider, all of the jokes present in the second movie trailer are all there is in the movie, meaning Suicide Squad could possibly be another daunting exercise in darkness, similar to Batman v Superman. The first trailer shown at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con gave off a dark, depressing tone, but it appears the backlash against Batman v Superman being “too dark” may have influenced the reshoots. Collider also reports that Warner Bros. noticed the general audience responded well to the second trailer (which had a bit more laughs), so the studio possibly saw the need to add a bit more levity to the Suicide Squad film.

There is a “no jokes” policy set in place at DC/Warner Bros. Cinema Blend states that this policy can be tracked back to the critical and box office failure of Green Lantern. The slapstick use of humor and Ryan Reynold’s banter could not save the film from oblivion. From there, DC decided to take a different direction and create a gritty, down-to-Earth superhero cinematic universe to differentiate themselves from Disney/Marvel films.

Drew Mcweeny of Hitfix gives his opinion on how this “no joke” policy could actually hurt DC.

“If DC finds a way to try to play their films on this larger, operatic, hero-as-myth level storytelling, I’d be excited to see that but if ‘No Jokes’ is a reaction to Green Lantern, an edict that comes from a desire to simply do things differently from Marvel, it could really paint DC’s movies into a corner.”

McWeeny could be on to something. Batman v Superman experienced success in its first week of release. However, in its second week of release, the film experienced a 68 percent drop in ticket sales, according to Forbes.

“Batman v Superman plunged 68.4% on its second weekend, giving it the seventh-biggest second-weekend drop for any major comic book movie on record. That’s better than the 69% drops of Elektra and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the 69.7% drops of Jonah Hex and Hulk as well as the 70.7% drop of Hellboy II(ironically one of the best comic book sequels ever) and the 78% drop for Steel back in 1997.”

Everyone does not agree with the theory about the reshoots. Twitter user @ReevzFx claims that the reshoots were scheduled long before the rumor took flight.

“This story is 100% bulls***, those reshoots were already planned due to the actor who is playing killer crocs sched”

ReevzFx is saying the actor playing Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) had scheduling conflicts, and reshoots are being done to include his character, not to change the tone of the film.

The reshoots are happening, and fans are speculating about why they are happening. Warner Bros has not come forward to confirm or deny any speculation, but a film with a lighter tone does not hurt them in any way. In fact, it may help the movie.

[Image via Warner Bros.]