DC Fandome hosted director James Gunn to talk about his newest movie The Suicide Squad (2021)! Fans watched and awaited for news and tidbits of this film, and I think we were only slightly rewarded for it.
Returning cast from the first Suicide Squad movie includes Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, and Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang.
The big reveal in this panel, something which fans have awaited answers to, was the official list of characters the large cast will play! The list goes as follows: Idris Elba as Bloodsport, Alice Braga as Solsoria, Nathan Fillion as T.D.K., Pete Davidson as Blackguard, Michael Rooker as Savant, John Cena as Peacemaker, David Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man, Sean Gunn as John Monroe/Weasel, Steve Agee as the voice of King Shark, Mayling Ng as Mongal, Flula Borg as Javelin, Juan Diego Botto as Luna, Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher II, and Peter Capaldi as Thinker.
“The Suicide Squad” director James Gunn (center) surrounded by his film’s cast! Picture credit to DC Fandome
Though this panel lasted around 30 minutes, most of which was spent with a Suicide Squad trivia game, not much detail was shared by director Gunn or his assembled cast. We still don’t know what the stakes are this time around for the Suicide Squad but we can probably presume that they are about the same as any other of their stories.
The basic set-up of the team: Amanda Waller assembles a rag-tag group of villainous superhuman (or otherwise) misfits into a “team”… Waller sends this team in to dangerous missions which, if they succeed, will earn each member a reduced sentence in whatever prison they reside. The team doesn’t operate with the respecting friendship which the Justice League has; they rub each other the wrong way more often than not and would back-stab anyone to get ahead or perhaps escape back into their lives of crime.
Mongal and Harley Quinn about to take action! Picture credit to Warner Bros. Pictures (via YouTube)
“This is a gritty 1970’s war movie combined with brilliance of James Gunn’s characters and comedy!” said producer Peter Safran.
I loved the reveal of who the new players are to this story; but I didn’t love that that’s ALL WE GOT!! I mean it’s going to be some time before we see the movie; they could have told us a bit more regarding what is going on this time around for these leading anti-heroes! They give us a sneak peak which *sort of* tells what to expect… but it went by too quickly!
The panel did advise, however, to not get too attached to any members of The Suicide Squad… I wonder at this point who will be considered the red shirt expendables.
John Cena as Peacemaker! Picture credit to Warner Bros. Pictures (via YouTube)
I’ll be very interested to see what we get out of John Cena’s character Peacemaker. Cena himself says that Peacemaker is a sort of douche-y Captain America. He’s someone Gunn says “believes in peace at any cost no matter how many people he needs to kill along the way.”
One can’t forget this movie’s predecessor Suicide Squad (2016)… It was a messy plot, under-utilized The Joker as a side component instead of a central villain, bad editing, and more complaints besides. Though on an estimated budget of $175,000,000 it took home $133,682,248 on its opening weekend in the USA and a Cumulative Worldwide Gross of $746,846,894.
Gunn did a marvelous job assembling and directing another band of misfits twice before with Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017); I have nothing but faith that he will strike gold once again in this latest venture for DC films! Go see The Suicide Squad when it’s released in August of 2021!
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