Article by Adam Poncharoensub
Over the last few weeks, The Suicide Squad has been in the news quite a bit, mostly because there are so many new things happening in the movie and because of the redemption of its writer/director, James Gunn.
Here’s a quick synopsis of the James Gunn debacle: James Gunn was fired from Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 following the surfacing of some lewd tweets from his past. DC snatched up the filmmaker for the next Suicide Squad movie. James Gunn has been rehired as director of GotG 3, but will finish The Suicide Squad first. He gets to play in both universes!
At the same time, considering the major shake up at DC Films no longer adhering to a shared film universe, there’s been so much news going around regarding its roster and cast. The most concrete of which being that Will Smith would not return as Deadshot with Idris Elba slated to take on the role. Elba is a huge name with movie-going audiences, mostly because of his insane talent. The biggest talking point, it seemed, was if he’d play his own version of Deadshot or for continuity’s sake, play a version of Will Smith’s Deadshot. To be honest, I would have paid cash money to see Elba impersonate Will Smith.
Goodbye, Deadshot
However, it’s being reported by Variety, that that may not be the case. In fact, they’re reporting that Deadshot will be removed altogether from the movie. A good choice, as it leaves it possible for Will Smith to return to the role again in the future. In case you did not know, Smith left due to scheduling and not necessarily because of any creative gripes with DC. At this moment, it has been agreed that Elba would be playing a new character. However, it is not currently known which character has been selected.
At this moment, several new characters had been bandied about. A potential roster appeared online a few weeks ago featuring Polka-Dot Man, Peacemaker, Ratcatcher, and King Shark. Even Killer Frost’s name has been spoken in hushed whispers. I highly doubt that they would make a star like Elba play one of these minor DC characters, but Gunn is a weird guy with a unique sense of humor, so you never know.
While Variety is a credible source, they did reach out to WB, who did NOT provide a comment. So it is best for the time being to keep the salt shaker nearby, lest this news is disproved to just be a beastly rumor.
While I now desperately want to see Idris Elba play Will Smith as Deadshot, this is a good move. Deadshot is a great recognizable character, it’s just smart to start fresh for Elba so that audiences aren’t confused. Plus, as stated earlier, it opens up the possibility of Smith to return to the role that people really liked. I’m just wondering who they could choose for someone with as much presence as Elba.
Stay tuned to DKN for more updates!
The Suicide Squad hits theatres on August 6, 2021.