Although DC fans would have probably liked what Warner Bros. was cooking up with Suicide Squad 2, the recent news of James Gunn joining the DC family means they’re going in a different direction.

Guardians of the Galaxy director/writer James Gunn is set to write and possibly direct the Suicide Squad sequel, which we hear will be a “soft-reboot”. Similar to how GI: Joe Retaliation restarted GI: Joe with a new story that included fresh and familiar faces, Gunn’s Suicide Squad 2 will reinvent the franchise but not throw away what has come before it. Not a great movie, but the analogy works.

Expect some familiar faces to appear; For example, Gunn’s version will likely include Will Smith’s Deadshot and Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn but discard other team members. The details remain to be seen (Gunn has yet to write the darn thing), but don’t expect a full-blown reboot of the Skwad.

I know a lot of fans were excited for the original director Gavin O’Connor to helm the film. Even though we’re not getting it anymore – perhaps Gunn will borrow something – we are going to give you what we heard regarding the original plot. Here’s what O’Connor and the screenwriters were going to bring to the table, and how it was too similar to Birds of Prey.

As we had previously reported, the Suicide Squad sequel was going to take place in the Middle-East. Why? Well, the skwad was traveling there to complete a black-ops style mission that would have seen them attempt to save a girl from a terrorist group. She was no ordinary girl, they were going to reveal that she was a major DC character with superpowers. We’re not entirely sure who the character was but her role in the story originally belonged to Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam. It’s safe to say they had to replace him with someone important, and I’m sure they had big names in mind (ex: Power Girl).

The “save the girl” aspect was too similar to DC’s upcoming Birds of Prey film which sees Harley Quinn form a team of heroes to save and protect Cassandra Cain. Apparently, O’Connor grew frustrated and adding the fact that Warner Bros. greenlit Prey first likely drove him to leave the project to direct The Has-Been instead.

Another major element of the story was the Amazo Virus. To go along with the darker tone, the film would have introduced this virus to give serious weight to the story. The Suicide Squad would have had to make serious decisions and make it one of DC’s dramatic films yet. In the comics, Lex Luthor created the synthetic plague based off of Professor Ivo’s Amazo android. Amazo was able to mimic metahuman abilities of those who he encountered. The movie was probably going to change that and take certain liberties of course.

James Gunn is set to write Suicide Squad 2 and is eyeing to direct it for WB/DC.

What do you guys think? Let us know in the comments below! –Marcos Melendez