The DC Fandome event gave us plenty of new trailers and teasers to goggle at, from wishful Wonder Woman to samesies Justice League to weirdo Goth Batman, but one of the more promising teasers comes from The Suicide Squad, James Gunn’s soft reboot of the 2016 Suicide Squad. Though the movie finished shooting earlier this year—wrapping just under the wire in February—the first teaser is not a proper look at the film. Instead, it’s a “roll call” for the sprawling cast, matching faces and names between characters. Some we already know, like Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller (survivors of the wreck of the first movie), but some details are new, such as the reveal of Idris Elba’s character: Bloodsport. Not gonna lie, I was hoping for Bronze Tiger, but Bloodsport is okay. He’s most famous for wounding Superman, he has ties to Lex Luthor, there’s a tragic family backstory, there’s some stuff to play with there. And it’s a character that Elba will almost own, as no one else has played Bloodsport in a live-action movie before, though there is a version on Supergirl. Only having to share your character with a separate television version is now the best outcome actors can hope for with DC, who keep resurrecting the same characters over and over and over and over and over…
Check out the roll call here:
First, let’s acknowledge that Harley Quinn looks PHENOMENAL in the new red-and-black duds. Birds of Prey and now The Suicide Squad are showing that Harley can look cool and badass and sexy without having to strip down in a scene where a bunch of men literally drool at her, or have a camera focused on her ass at all times. Sex appeal and objectification do not have to go hand and hand. I really, really love this look on Harley, and how it pays homage to her classic animated look. Just as with the previous iteration of the Suicide Squad, Harley is the best-looking thing about the movie so far.
Also, of all that huge cast and those many characters, a curious mystery arises. King Shark is listed as a character but has no actor attached on the roll call. Taika Waititi is in the cast, but is not included in the roll call. So who is playing King Shark? And who is Taika playing? Is Taika voicing King Shark? It’s the most obvious answer, but why not just include that in the roll call? Is Taika’s part so small there is a chance he could be cut out of the film? Is King Shark a real person who exists and is playing himself? It’s a mystery!
Besides the roll call, The Suicide Squad also showed off a behind-the-scenes reel that shows bits and pieces of action from the film. This is the kind of thing Star Wars usually does, and much like with Rogue One, we are being promised a “1970s style war movie” with The Suicide Squad. As with Rogue One, I assume that means a lot of people are going to die in the movie, which was already a given, what with the title and the “Don’t get attached” tag line. James Gunn is also saying this is the “biggest movie” he’s ever directed, which I am sure is true, at least until he makes Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. I do like the look of The Suicide Squad, though, and this is a promising look at a movie redoing a concept we’ve seen before, which seems to be DC’s specialty these days.
