Out of all the films coming from the world of DC, the one that seems all over the place is this upcoming Suicide Squad movie.
Last month, Shazam and Aquaman producer Peter Safran stated that James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad will be a “total reboot” as the movie will have nothing to do with David Ayer’s successful, but critically shredded, original.
(Disclaimer – I like Ayer’s movie, it was a fun, silly summer action blockbuster)
However, can it be a reboot if some of the original cast is coming back?
Because the first to make a return was Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. From a studio point of view, it makes sense as she was the most popular character out of the film leading to the character have her own spin-off film, Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) directed by Cathy Yan.
Elsewhere, news broke of Will Smith departing as Deadshot and will be recast by Idris Elba, which got fans (including me) excited and in some cases an improvement. Even though I liked Smith’s performance, Elba is a much better actor.
However, last Friday (5th April) Variety broke the story that Deadshot has been completely removed from the movie and British actor Elba be a new role. What the role will be is unknown, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Bronze Tiger.
The news that fans were waiting to hear was The Wrap confirming Viola Davis is coming back as Amanda Waller as she did a wonderful job in the role in the original movie and I think fans would’ve been pissed if she wasn’t.
Then finally, Jai Courtney confirmed that he too was coming back.
So if you bring back three of the members of the original squad can we stop calling it a reboot because if anything this is a sequel but I think this as accidentally became the DCEU’s James Bond.
I say that because you have the original actors in their roles (for example Davis’ Waller is M) but you have new characters added to the franchise, basically doing what the comics have been doing for decades.
Hopefully, this is a way they can continue as some of the newer Squad members can be killed off as that was something lacking in the original and with Elba no longer playing Deadshot, we could see Smith pop up at the end or in a post credit scene.
So now Gunn has an open playhouse mixing the positively revealed characters from the original bringing continuity to the DC Universe but also lets the filmmaker have his fun making it and introducing new characters.
The one thing I’m dreading with that is Gunn being wacky and bring in D-list villains because we know they’ll be the likeliest ones to get killed off instead of bringing in brilliant villains like Killer Frost, King Shark and a Suicide Squad comic OG Bronze Tiger, because he was in Safran’s produced Aquaman, Yayha Abdul-Mateen II’s Black Manta.
This would it makes it more interesting as to who they can kill off.
We’ll have to wait and see, even though Gunn is still attached, it’s exciting some of the original cast will be making their return.
The Suicide Squad set to hit cinemas on August 6, 2021
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