Guardians of the Galaxy director, James Gunn, revealed the first look of his upcoming superhero ensemble film, The Suicide Squad, at the DC FanDome virtual convention.
The star-studded cast of the big film that is aiming for a 2021 release will include a number of actors who will be reprising their roles from the 2016 release titled ‘Suicide Squad’. Margot Robbie will play Harley Quinn, Viola Davis will be seen as Amanda Waller, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, and Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag. According to reports, Gunn dove deep into DC Comics archives to choose villains for the film, adding on new creations of his own to the entire mix. Alice Braga has been roped in for a new character written for the film, who may be related to the character Juan Soria in the comics. Soria joins the Suicide Squad after getting rejected by the Justice League. Nathan Fillion will also be portraying a seemingly new character, T.D.K.
The remaining lead cast features British Idris Elba as Bloodsport, Pete Davidson as Blackguard, Michael Rooker as Savant, David Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man, a 60s DC Comics villain, Sean Gunn as Weasel, Peter Capaldi as the Thinker who is one of the oldest DC Comics villains, Flula Borg as Javelin, Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher 2, and Mayling Ng as Mongal. The cast also includes John Cena as Peacemaker.
In a behind-the-scenes clip, Cena describes his character as a “douchey Captain America.” According to Gunn himself, he is “the guy who believes in peace at any cost, no matter how many people he has to kill along the way.”
Gunn’s final villain is King Shark, a giant man with a shark head, who was featured in the CW series The Flash.
The film will not be a sequel to the 2016 Suicide Squad film, instead will be sort of a remake of it. Despite raking in $756.8 million globally, the David Ayer film was unanimously regarded as a creative disappointment.
Production of the film was wrapped up production before the pandemic hit, and according to Gunn, it will hit theaters on August 6, 2021.