Suicide Squad is a 2016 American superhero film based on the DC Comics supervillain supervillain team of the same name. The third installment in the DC Extended Universe, it was written and directed by David Ayer and stars an ensemble cast including Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jay Hernandez, Jai Courtney, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Joel Kinnaman, Cara Delevingne, Karen Fukuhara, Viola Davis, Ike Barinholtz, Scott Eastwood, and Jared Leto.
In the film, a secret government agency led by Amanda Waller recruits imprisoned supervillains to execute dangerous black ops missions and save the world from a powerful threat in exchange for reduced sentences.
By February 2009, a Suicide Squad film was in development at Warner Bros. Ayer signed on to write and direct in September 2014, and by October, the casting process had begun. Principal photography began in Toronto, Ontario on April 13, 2015, with additional filming in Chicago, and ended in August that year.
Suicide Squad premiered in New York City on August 1, 2016, and was released in the United States in 2D, Real D 3D, IMAX, and IMAX 3D on August 5, 2016. Following a strong debut that set new box office records, the film grossed over $746 million worldwide, making it the tenth highest-grossing film of 2016. It received generally negative reviews from critics, who criticized its perceived thin plot, direction, editing, and characterization, though Robbie’s performance and the makeup was praised.
The film was nominated for and won multiple awards across various categories, including an Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling at the 89th Academy Awards, making it the first film in the DCEU to win an Academy Award. It will be followed by the spin-off film Birds of Prey, starring Robbie, in 2020, as well as the standalone sequel The Suicide Squad in 2021, with Robbie, Kinnaman, Davis, and Courtney returning.