Don’t get attached: They might not be around for that long.
The Suicide Squad writer and director James Gunn introduced the world to his squad members during a DC Fandome panel on Saturday, giving us a peek at what these villains will be doing and why this isn’t a sequel to David Ayer’s 2016 film.
During the panel, Gunn emphasised that this is a reimagining and reinvention of the original comic book series, nor is it a sequel or reboot to Ayer’s film. Gunn said he conceived of the film as a sequel to John Ostrander’s original comic, the answer to the question, what would the book look like if it had run for the past 30 years? Not only is this part of DC’s larger effort to usher a new age of DC Entertainment films, it’s also because it’s taking inspiration from the 1980s series by John Ostrander and Kim Yale (instead of being based on the New 52 run of Suicide Squad, like Ayer’s version). That means it’s focusing on the Suicide Squad’s original purpose of being used for high-risk missions the U.S. government doesn’t want to do — hopefully that means they won’t be fighting a giant doom cloud created by a god.
We already knew that Margot Robbie was returning as Harley Quinn, along with Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, and Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag. But what about all these other Suicide Squaders? We got a deeper look at some of the folks this gigantic cast of characters will be portraying in Gunn’s version of The Suicide Squad. Here’s what we know.
Idris Elba is playing Bloodsport, who’s in prison, in the film, for shooting Superman.
Michael Rooker is playing Savant.
Peter Capaldi is playing Thinker
Nathan Fillion is playing T.D.K.
Pete Davidson is playing Blackguard.
David Dastmalchian is playing Abner Krill, also known as Polka-Dot Man. He was a local crook who become one of Batman’s arch-nemeses. Eventually, he was defeated by Gotham’s police force, became a bit of a laughingstock amongst the villain community, and found comfort at the local bar.
Daniela Melchior is playing a gender-swapped version of Ratcatcher, a Batman villain who could communicate with and train rats, using them to spread disease all over the city of Gotham.
Steve Agee is voicing King Shark, a classic DC villain who’s a giant awesome shark. That’s literally all you need to know.
John Cena is playing Peacemaker.
Mayling Ng is playing Mongal.
Flula Borg is playing Javelin.
Sean Gunn is playing Weasel.
Juan Diego Botto is playing Luna.
Storm Reid is playing Tyla.
Alice Braga is playing Solsoria.
And there are likely more to come! Also, way to go deep: some of these characters are obscure enough that I legitimately cannot find anything about them.
The Suicide Squad is set to come out in U.S. theatres on August 6, 2021. Stay tuned for an Australian release date.