Is The Suicide Squad Connected To Justice League Snyder Cut?

The Suicide Squad is the next major DCEU film hitting theaters and HBO Max but does it connect to Zack Snyder’s Justice League cut? Task Force X is coming back for the first time since 2016 when they first assembled together in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad. While the follow-up isn’t a reboot per se, James Gunn’s product is, at most, a soft sequel to the previous DCEU movie. While it features a handful of cast members from the first installment, the continuation will take the franchise in a new direction with the introduction of a huge number of DC Comics characters.

While The Suicide Squad will hit theaters, HBO Max will also become another platform for audience members, especially during the global pandemic. This becomes the third DC film that hits the HBO streaming platform following Wonder Woman 1984 and more recently, Zack Snyder’s Justice League. But even though The Suicide Squad is a partial follow-up to the 2016 product, does Gunn’s picture connect to the Snyder Cut whatsoever? Despite the first trailer dropping only a week after HBO Max released Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the second Suicide Squad movie has no ties to it at all.

Not too long after it was announced to hit HBO Max, Zack Snyder’s Justice League was established to not be tied into the DCEU anymore as the director looks at it as an Elseworlds situation. For the general audience that doesn’t follow the larger discussion, it’s understandable to wonder if The Suicide Squad ties into the Snyder Cut, given the trailer being released the following week – but the fact of the matter is, they’re not connected at all. Another factor to consider is how Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn gets name-dropped in the Knightmare sequence of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. While Harley isn’t in it, Batman does tell Joker that, at some point during this dystopian future, she died in Bruce’s arms.

Jared Leto’s Joker won’t be in The Suicide Squad, but he is the other character in Ayer’s Suicide Squad to get included in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Despite the brief crossover with Joker’s reappearance and the death of Harley Quinn, the Snyder Cut exists in its own universe. Since the DCEU has progressed after 2017’s Justice League, the continuity wouldn’t match the events of the 4-hour cut. Although in The Suicide Squad’s favor, it doesn’t really have any tie-ins to Joss Whedon’s theatrical version of the DC ensemble. It connects more so to Ayer’s first installment as well as Birds of Prey since Harley’s new adventures take place after those movies.

It would have been neat if The Suicide Squad and Zack Snyder’s Justice League tied into each other, particularly because of Harley. Since the Knightmare future wouldn’t have happened at this point in the upcoming sequel, it would give audience members a continuation of Robbie’s character and her overall DCEU saga. If anything, it could be another way to foreshadow the potential role that Harley had in the future after Darkseid conquered the planet. Since Zack Snyder’s Justice League revealed that Harley dies in Batman’s arms, The Suicide Squad could have proceeded with her new role in the DCEU as the anti-hero that she has become.