Yesterday, Warner Bros. officially announced the cast for Suicide Squad, confirming many of the rumors surrounding the project. The film will feature a huge ensemble cast to play the baddest of the bad in DC’s most infamous team of super criminals. It will also mark the first cinematic appearances of many beloved DC comic book villains and anti-heroes.
Variety has reported that Suicide Squad will star Jared Leto as The Joker, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Will Smith as the assassin Deadshot, Tom Hardy as Rick Flag (rumored to be the team’s leader), British model Cara Delevingne as Enchantress and human meat puppet Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang.
Warner Bros. is billing this film as their Ocean’s Eleven with supervillains. With the exception of Courtney, the cast is pretty impressive. I think you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone not excited to see Leto and Robbie’s take on DC’s most deranged comic couple. It’s also nice to see Smith willing to act in an ensemble cast. The actor has had a reputation for only starring in films that present him as the sole focus. It’s nice to see Smith wanting to be a team player. Also, Hardy’s past experience as the supervillain Bane in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises will most likely serve him well in this newest comic book movie. While Rick Flagg and Bane are very different characters, Hardy’s capabilities as an actor and prior experience working on a huge film production will at least allow him to know the ins and outs of what comes with being a character in a comic book movie.
The plot of the film is currently unknown, but if DC were to borrow certain elements from the popular Assault on Arkham animated film that featured the Suicide Squad, than I think both DC and Warner Bros. could have a potential hit on their hands. Having the film centered around a familiar location like Arkham Asylum would not only increase fanboy anticipation, but it would most likely pique the interest of those who may not be overly familiar with the team.
While the team that is the Suicide Squad has been confirmed, Warner Bros. is hardly finished with its casting call. According to Variety, Warner Bros. is mulling over a shortlist of actresses to play the squad of villains and anti-heroes’ charismatic handler, Amanda Waller. Of the actresses being considered for the part include Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis and Oprah Winfrey, who is rumored to be the studio’s first choice. For those unfamiliar with Waller, she’s very much the big government bad of the DC Universe. Name an assassination or black ops mission in a DC comic and you won’t be surprised to learn that she had some hand in it.
In many ways considered to be a darker version of Marvel’s Nick Fury, Waller has spent most of her life fighting against DC’s heroes and villains. Although almost always presented as a villain herself, Waller did strike up an unlikely understanding/friendship with Batman in Bruce Timm’s award-winning Justice League Unlimited. Her most recent appearance outside of the comics was in Assault on Arkham, where she tasked the Suicide Squad to infiltrate and eliminate a specific target within the dreaded asylum.
Warner Bros. President Greg Silverman also released a statement praising Director David Ayer and the film’s cast.
“The Warner Bros. roots are deep on this one. David Ayer returns to the studio where he wrote ‘Training Day’ and brings his incredible ability to craft multidimensional villains to this iconic DC property with a cast of longtime Warner collaborators Will Smith and Tom Hardy, and other new and returning favorites: Margot, Jared, Jai and Cara. We look forward to seeing this terrific ensemble, under Ayer’s amazing guidance, give new meaning to what it means to be a villain and what it means to be a hero.”
What about you reader? What do you think of the newly announced cast? Let us know in the comments below.
