This week, reports emerged that Mel Gibson is in talks to direct Suicide Squad 2. While no deal has been made, Warner Bros. is courting the actor-director for the gig while he gets familiar with the material, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
This is a terrible idea for several reasons. Hacksaw Ridge director Gibson is back in action after a hiatus from Hollywood following a string of scandals including a vile antisemitic rant after his drunk driving arrest in 2006 ("The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world") and leaked phone calls with his ex-girlfriend in which the Gibson verbally abuses her ("If you get raped by a pack of [racial expletive] it’ll be your fault") and admits to domestic violence ("You fucking deserved it," he says after she accuses him of hitting her while she was holding their baby, as well as breaking her teeth, twice.)
First of all, seriously: is this the guy we want directing movies, period? But secondly: let's think about the nauseatingly ironic prospect of Gibson directing Margot Robbie's character, Harley Quinn. Quinn's backstory in the Comics says that she is Jewish, bisexual, and a domestic violence survivor (at the hand of the Joker), as Mic notes.
So the idea of Gibson, a man with a documented history of anti-Semitism and domestic violence, is just unreal. Seriously, DC? There are a ton of talented directors out there. Do you have to choose the one who's been recorded spewing hate speech against Jews and admitted abusing his girlfriend? Harley Quinn deserves better than that.