James Gunn has completely finished his final cut of The Suicide Squad with several months to spare. Ahead of the movie's scheduled release in theaters and on HBO Max in August, Gunn announced on Twitter that the team had "completely finished the movie this week, VFX and all." The filmmaker also noted how he's always planned to have the sequel wrapped by this point, though he's a bit surprised that not a single pickup shot was needed to complete the final cut.

Yes, it is unusual, but I always planned to have it done by now," Gunn said in a follow-up tweet. "What's more unusual is that we didn't do a single shot of pickups or any post production shooting. Outside of Chris Nolan, that almost never happens, if at all, on tentpole superhero films."

In another tweet, James Gunn added: "There's nothing left to do other than me looking at marketing & toys, doing publicity & waiting for the world to heal just a little more so a larger number of people can see it safely in theaters, where it is intended to be seen."

Written and directed by Gunn, The Suicide Squad will feature a standalone story with no direct connection to David Ayer's 2016 movie, beyond several returning characters. The returning cast includes Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, and Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang. New cast members will include Idris Elba as Bloodsport, John Cena as Peacemaker, Sylvester Stallone as King Shark, Peter Capaldi as The Thinker, Michael Rooker as Savant, Pete Davidson as Blackguard, Sean Gunn as Weasel, Nathan Fillion as T.D.K., Flula Borg as Javelin, David Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man, and Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher 2.

In the anticipated movie, the imprisoned convicts of Belle Reve penitentiary are sent as members of Task Force X to the South American island of Corto Maltese to destroy Jotunheim, a Nazi-era prison and laboratory which held political prisoners and conducted experiments. Within a week of the trailer's release, it was viewed more than 150 million times, breaking the record for red band trailers that was held by Mortal Kombat. Needless to say, the movie's more likely than not to do very well when it's released.

Throughout the entire production process, Gunn has been open about how much creative freedom he's gotten from Warner Bros. to make The Suicide Squad. He was able to bring in all of the DC characters he specifically wanted, and better yet, there was no studio meddling with the vision he had for the story. Perhaps the studio has learned from the success of Zack Snyder's Justice League that it's best to let the filmmakers complete the movie in their own ways as opposed to adding more cooks to the kitchen.

"Yes, the movie is mine from start to finish," Gunn said in another tweet, responding to a fan directly asking if he had final say on the release. The Suicide Squad will be released in theaters and on HBO Max on Aug. 6, 2021, and the news of Gunn completely finishing the movie comes to us from James Gunn on Twitter.