It looks like Suicide Squad 2 is on track to start filming early next year. Despite reports that Will Smith's filming schedule on Disney's live-action Aladdin will get in the way of the production start, it looks like Warner Bros. has found a way to work around it. According to a new production listing, Suicide Squad 2 is scheduled to start filming in March of 2018. That should put the movie on track for release in 2019.

Even though the official cast hasn't yet been announced for Suicide Squad 2, it's expected that the majority of the principal cast will reprise their roles for the sequel. Though, the status of when Jared Leto will reprise his role as The Joker in the DCEU is a bit up in the air, it's ultimately expected that he'll appear in the movie. In addition to Will Smith as Deadshot, it's expected that the movie will bring back Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, and the rest of the primary members of the Suicide Squad.

David Ayer, who wrote and directed the first Suicide Squad, isn't returning for the sequel. While it took Warner Bros. a while to lock down a director, Gavin O'Connor (The Accountant) was recently hired to write and direct Suicide Squad 2. Prior to his hiring, Warner Bros. was trying to court Mel Gibson, following his critically-acclaimed return with Hacksaw Ridge, but that ultimately didn't pan out. The studio also looked at Jaume Collet-Serra, but he decided to take on Disney's The Jungle Cruise with Dwayne Johnson instead.

Considering that Aladdin has already been filming for several weeks, it's entirely possible that Will Smith could be free by mid-March to start filming Suicide Squad 2. That gives Warner Bros. and Gavin O'Connor nearly five more months to get everything ready. Considering that David Ayer reportedly only had six weeks to write the script for Suicide Squad, that's not too bad. Though, given the success that Warner Bros. had with Wonder Woman this year, and given the response to Suicide Squad from fans and critics, they would surely hope to avoid a similar situation with the sequel. Instead, they'd like to probably keep the hot streak going and build more good faith in the DC brand on the big screen.

Despite divisiveness among fans and terrible critical reception, Suicide Squad made $745 million at the worldwide box office and won an Oscar. So a sequel was always going to happen, despite the reception. Though this new report from My Entertainment World doesn't make note of a release date for Suicide Squad 2, Warner Bros. does have three untitled DC movies slated for 2019. One on April 5, one on June 14 and one on November 1. Given the possible March 2018 start date, the April 5, 2019, or the June 14, 2019, release date would seem to make the most sense.