Okay, we all know "The Suicide Squad" won't be the final title for the Gunn movie. I'd say "Task Force X: The Suicide Squad" or something like that is what they'll go with. What do you folks reckon? Any other ideas for the title?
DC Movies - To Infinity and Beyond
- Thread starter dahj
- Start date
Suicide Squad: Task Force X.
Why not? X-Men Origins: Wolverine had a sequel called The Wolverine. Last year's Predator sequel was just called The Predator. And the long-in-development new Batman movie is supposed to be called The Batman. This seems to be a trend these days.
Because there's a potential for unnecessary confusion by using only an added article to the title to difference it from the previous movie.
That potential is not as high with the movies you list. There was no movie simply titled "Wolverine" before "The Wolverine" (as you yourself note, it was called "X-Men Origins: Wolverine"), and "Predator" and "Batman" are thirty years old by now. And "The Batman" may not be the final title, either.
I don't think that really matters to a studio whose primary concern is just going to be getting people into theater seats. The only movie that's going to be in theaters is the current one, so there's no basis for confusion there. It might create some confusion on home video years down the road, but that may be less of a concern, and the distributors probably don't care whether someone bought the wrong movie as long as they paid for it. (Which is the whole business model behind the Asylum and its "mockbuster" knockoffs of hit movies.)
I mean, sure, personally I think it's weird that studios are so willing to give sequels near-identical titles. But it seems to be something they're willing to do despite all the reasons you or I might find it a strange or bad idea. I'm just saying, never underestimate the capacity of studios and marketers to make bewildering decisions. Their priorities are not ours.
Okay, let me re-phrase, then. I don't think they will actually just call it "The Suicide Squad". While Fox has tried that strategy with "The Wolverine" and "The Predator", WB has not done so, yet, certainly not with a direct successor.
Sure, no movie title is really locked in place until fairly late in the game -- Joe Russo recently said in an interview about Avengers: Endgame that they usually make the final judgment on the title around the time they see the first trailer. But I don't see The Suicide Squad as being more unlikely than any other title. To me it kind of conveys an air of "Psst, let's all pretend the other movie never happened and treat this as the first one, okay?" Or maybe, like, that one was a Suicide Squad and this is The Suicide Squad. 
Well...it is James Gunn...so he might do something different...
*A* Suicide Squad
*A* Suicide Squad
Numbered sequel titles aren't the most artful things but they definitely help with properties I only have a passing interest in. I have no idea which Pirates of the Caribbean or Transformers movie is which from the titles when they're being shown.
I guess maybe it's like how comic books will start renumbering (or at least used to I'm not up to date anymore) or starting a new line so they can start from one again. Maybe "The Suicide Squad" or whatever is more enticing than "Suicide Squad 2" as it's fresher? Does "Movie Sequel 3" start to feel stale? I have no real knowledge about effective marketing techniques though.
I guess maybe it's like how comic books will start renumbering (or at least used to I'm not up to date anymore) or starting a new line so they can start from one again. Maybe "The Suicide Squad" or whatever is more enticing than "Suicide Squad 2" as it's fresher? Does "Movie Sequel 3" start to feel stale? I have no real knowledge about effective marketing techniques though.
Numbered sequels do seem to have fallen out of fashion these days, perhaps because they were so common in the past and it's seen as passé.
Although I've always been of the opinion that every story should have its own distinct title. Just sticking a number onto the title of the first installment is too generic. I have nothing against using both a number and a subtitle, though. (And I'm okay with Back to the Future Part 2 and Part 3 as titles, because the trilogy really does feel like a single unified story.)
Although I've always been of the opinion that every story should have its own distinct title. Just sticking a number onto the title of the first installment is too generic. I have nothing against using both a number and a subtitle, though. (And I'm okay with Back to the Future Part 2 and Part 3 as titles, because the trilogy really does feel like a single unified story.)
I personally as a kid always liked that the Indiana Jones, Star Wars and James Bond movies had individual titles and didn’t just go for the 2,3 etc option that other franchises adopted. The late British film critic Barry Norman used to refer to the summer (when blockbusters usually came out) as “the football scores season” - Back to the Future 2, Ghostbusters 2, Superman 3, etc.
I don't understand the logic either on some of these titles.There are now three movies called Halloween. I can somewhat understand naming the one in 2007 the same since that was a reboot, but the one that came out last year was suppose to be a direct sequal to the original so why also call it Halloween? Frankly I think having a sub title underneath let's people know that it's a sequal without the baggage that a large Roman numeral carries.
What's H2O4?
Keeping your plants from dying.
^ Looking forward to it with virtually no reservations at this point, since the post-Snyder DCEU has been pretty much killing it.
Now, Birds of Prey, and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn is how you do a subtitle.
