Chris Pratt on What Went Wrong With ‘Suicide Squad’: ‘Too Many Characters’

“It’s kind of a miracle that anyone’s got it right. You know?” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” star says

Chris Pratt builds giant Easter cross
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Yes, “Suicide Squad” was panned by fans and critics, and Chris Pratt has a theory as to what went wrong with the DC film.

“I really like all the Warner Bros. movies,” Pratt told io9 at last week’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” junket. “I think they’re really cool and I’m not a real tough critic on those movies. But one of the flaws might have been they were introducing too many characters in ‘Suicide Squad.’ They spent 10 minutes telling us why should we care about these characters, rather than creating trilogies for each character and convincing us to care about the characters.”

Marvel, which produced “Guardians of the Galaxy” and its upcoming sequel in which Pratt stars, takes its time developing storylines of individual characters, argued Pratt.

“It’s like hardwood,” he said. “They grew it really slowly so it’s strong. They didn’t create ‘The Avengers’ first. They did ‘Iron Man.’ And they tested it to make sure it worked. Then they did [‘Iron Man II’] and [‘Iron Man III’], then they did ‘Cap,’ and then they did ‘Thor.’ And they created a thirst for these characters, and that’s when they put them in ‘The Avengers.’”

Warner Bros. is kind of doing what Pratt is suggesting. Gal Gadot will have her standalone “Wonder Woman” movie before November’s upcoming “Justice League,” and David Ayer plans to take Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, first introduced in “Suicide Squad,” into the spinoff, “Gotham City Sirens.”

Creating a franchise is “really f—– hard to do,” Pratt added.

“And it’s kind of a miracle that anyone’s got it right. You know?” he concluded. “So. I think it comes down to Kevin [Feige], his filmmakers, and ultimately, me, playing Star-Lord.”

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” will hit theaters on May 5.

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