The Suicide Squad director, James Gunn, has explained King Shark’s character design in the wake of the first trailer.
Are you talking to me?
Since making his debut in the early 90’s Superboy series, King Shark has served in several iterations of the Suicide Squad, both in comics and in animation. He’s also appeared in live action, on the CW’s The Flash. Of course, being part man/part shark, he’s devoured hundreds of lackeys, toadies, and assorted henchmen. He’s also varied wildly, depending on the writer and artist, in intelligence, verbal capacity and appearance. Sometimes he’s got the head of a great white, other times a hammerhead.
While the trailer offers a few clues as to what’s going on inside that head, it leaves no doubt about its shape. James Gunn went for a great white, but for purely practical reasons only, as the writer/director revealed on Twitter.
I did tests with the hammerhead design, which I love & originally thought I’d use. But having eyes on the sides far apart made it incredibly awkward shooting interactions with other people. You couldn’t really see him looking at the other person, and the shots tended to be too wide.
Trying out this paleo thing….
James Gunn also explained another aspect King Shark’s character design, his sublime dad-bod.
But I was insistent on the dad-bod from the beginning, as I didn’t think King Shark would have such mammalian body structure.
I would think that a totally carb-free diet would really help him maintain that six-pack, but on the other hand, it’s nice to see superheroes that look like me on the big screen. Either way, I just know I’m super excited to see James Gunn’s version of the Squad. Hopefully its an improvement on the David Ayers version, which the suits in charge butchered trying to make it look like James Gunn directed it. Fingers crossed for August, 6th!
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