James Gunn gets daily death threats from ‘Suicide Squad’ superfans

Director James Gunn has revealed that he receives death threats “every single day” ahead of the Suicide Squad sequel release.

Director James Gunn has revealed that he receives death threats “every single day” about the fate of the characters in his upcoming sequel to 2016’s critically lambasted Suicide Squad.

The filmmaker’s new DC Comics flick, randomly titled The Suicide Squad, is set to premiere in theatres an on HBO Max on August 6 – and diehard superfans have strong opinions about it.

“This morning on IG: ‘This is a threat. If you kill (character name redacted) I will hatecrime you.’ Every. Single. Day,” Gunn posted on Twitter, sharing an interview he did with the popular fan site Den of Geek.

James Gunn in 2014. Picture: Carl Court/AFP

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In the conversation, Gunn also revealed a major character will die.

“The first thing I had to do was ignore the potential blowback from killing a character. And it really had to do with the structure of the story, especially when we get into the main part of the film with the primary characters,” he told the outlet.

“It’s all in relationship to the story that I would kill anyone who the story saw fit to kill. I’m working for the story. I’m just the servant of the story. So whatever the story says is what I’m going to do, no matter what the repercussions are for anything.”

This morning on IG: “This is a threat. If you kill (character name redacted) I will hatecrime you.” Every. Single. Day. https://t.co/LVlRfMTUG2

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) May 15, 2021

Gunn said he tries to ignore the negative comments.

“If you read the comments below this thread, they’re … around the average of 75 or 50 positive to one negative – too many artists get bogged down in the negative ones and grow numb to the positive ones. I try not to get bogged down in either and stay focused on what I love to do,” he continued on Twitter.

Gunn was famously fired by Disney in 2018 – after directing two Guardians Of The Galaxy flicks for the media empire’s Marvel Cinematic Universe – when years-old offensive tweets of his resurfaced in which he joked about topics including rape, 9/11 and paedophilia. He was rehired in 2019 after garnering the support of several Hollywood heavyweights.

Now The Suicide Squad reboot brings back star Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, the role the Oscar nominee played in the 2016 film and its 2020 spin-off Birds of Prey. John Cena, Viola Davis, Pete Davidson and Idris Elba all have major roles, and newcomer Daniela Melchior also joins the cast as Ratcatcher.

The cast of the original Suicide Squad film.

The Warner Bros. trailer of the jungle-set reboot appears much more colourful than the murky 2016 flick, which is a stark contrast to Zack Snyder’s recent sooty Justice League recut.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission