Director James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad” recently dropped its first official trailer.

“The Suicide Squad” (2021), not to be confused with “Suicide Squad” (2016), is a direct sequel to the 2016 film.

The 2016 “Suicide Squad” followed a handful of members from the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), such as Katana, Rick Flag, Harley Quinn, Joker and Deadshot, among others. This film garnered mostly negative reviews from both critics and fans alike. The general consensus on the worst parts of this film were the focus on Enchantress as the main villain as opposed to Joker, the casting choice of Jared Leto as Joker and the lack of backstory on the myriad of characters that appear.

“The Suicide Squad” (2021) appears to be taking this DCEU story in a different direction than its predecessor. According to the newly released trailer, there appears to be even more DCEU characters present in this film than in its predecessor. While this may be a red flag of “The Suicide Squad” repeating past mistakes, this new film seems to have the casting choices and more-well known characters behind it to back it up.

Some characters, and the actors that play them, are making a return in “The Suicide Squad,” such as Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and Amanda Waller (Viola Davis). All of these actors, especially Robbie, were generally praised for their character portrayals, so their returns are expected to be welcomed ones.

New characters and cast members include King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone), Savant (Michael Rooker), Bloodsport (Idris Elba) and many others. The appearance of both more well-known DCEU characters and the actors who portray them have fans predicting that “The Suicide Squad” will perform better than its predecessor.

The trailer for “The Suicide Squad” itself shows this film will be rated R. The amount of bloodshed and adult language present in the trailer proves this from the get-go. This film is going to step up its violence and gore to help appeal to a more adult audience. 

“It’s definitely going to be the biggest budget R-rated movie that’s ever been made,” Kinnaman said in an interview with “The Playlist Podcast.” “And it’s heavily R-rated and super silly. It’s really, like, childish, childish humor, and it also finds these profound moments where you get really emotionally moved.”

“The Suicide Squad” will be released Aug. 6.