James Gunn Breaks Down The Suicide Squad’s Creative Title Card Scenes

Writer and director James Gunn praises his team for helping him create The Suicide Squad’s stylish title cards. Despite its slightly-disappointing performance at the box office—at a time when the dual streaming/theatrical release strategy reigned supreme—2021’s The Suicide Squad marked a new and creatively ambitious chapter of the DC Extended Universe. This was thanks to the hiring of the Guardians of the Galaxy mastermind to pick up where David Ayer left off with Amanda Waller’s (Viola Davis) Task Force X.

The quasi-sequel to 2016’s Suicide Squad brings back Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), and Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) while introducing Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (Sylvester Stallone), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), T.D.K. (Nathan Fillion), Weasel (Sean Gunn), Blackguard (Pete Davidson), Javelin (Flula Borg), Mongal (Mayling Ng), and Savant (Michael Rooker). Although the latter four don’t make it past the violent title card, the rest remain on the island of Corto Maltese to destroy all traces of Project Starfish and, in turn, Starro the Conqueror. Throughout its story, The Suicide Squad uses several chapter title cards that blend into the characters’ surroundings and give the film a very comic book feel.

Despite his busy schedule – he’s currently in post-production on both Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3  and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special –  Gunn often takes to social media to interact with fans and share behind-the-scenes content. Recently, he retweeted a fan account’s post praising The Suicide Squad’s use of title cards, explaining the title cards were made possible because several departments were working in unison. Check it out below:

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Through his work on Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, DC Films’ The Suicide Squad, and, most recently, HBO Max’s Peacemaker, Gunn has become known for interweaving juke-box-worthy music and effective visual cues into his narratives. In The Suicide Squad, he added signposts that direct the viewer through the film’s occasionally non-linear narrative, which is essential at the beginning of the movie.mThe primary purpose of the chapter titles might be to clear up any confusion caused by The Suicide Squad’s narrative and jumping from character to character, they also pay homage to the film’s source material.

Comics often use small headers like “meanwhile…”—which the film employs with the “Meanwhile, Harley” card—to move through the story. The use of title cards only adds to Gunn’s notion that The Suicide Squad is the ultimate comic book movie. At least for now. This year, Gunn wrapped filming on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and will eventually return to the DCEU for Peacemaker season 2 (and who knows what else). It remains to be seen if title cards will return for any of his future projects.