Warner Bros. PicturesJames Gunn, director of The Suicide Squad, has released the full cast list for the upcoming film and let’s just say the budget for casting was obviously pretty big.
On the off-chance you’re thinking, ‘wait, I already knew the full cast list for Suicide Squad, it was released three years ago’, let me clarify this is a new film about the Worst of the Worst.
While Gunn’s feature is not being labelled as a straight sequel or reboot, it will bring back key characters from David Ayer’s 2016 film while also introducing a number of new villains and anti-heroes as Gunn takes the series in his own direction.
Warner Bros. PicturesThe director, who is also behind the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, announced the full line-up on Instagram on Friday. It confirmed Margot Robbie, Jai Courtney, Joel Kinnaman and Viola Davis would be returning to reprise their roles of Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, Rick Flag and Amanda Waller, respectively.
As for the newcomers, Gunn listed Idris Elba, Peter Capaldi, John Cena, Alice Braga, Nathan Fillion, Taika Waititi and Jennifer Holland, though their roles have not yet been confirmed.
Other cast members include Guardians of the Galaxy stars Michael Rooker and Sean Gunn, as well as David Dastmalchian, Joaquín Cosío, Mayling Ng, Flula Borg, Juan Diego Botto, Storm Reid, Pete Davidson, Tinashe Kajese, Daniela Melchior, Julio Ruiz and Michael Rooker.
While it appears there’s someone for everyone in the star-studded cast, the director warned fans ‘don’t get too attached’, suggesting many of the stars will either appear in glorified cameos or meet an unfortunate fate before the end of the film.
According to ScreenRant, Elba was originally cast to replace Will Smith as Deadshot but filmmakers decided to move him to a different role in order to keep the door open for Smith to return in the future.
While it’s not clear what role Elba will take on, Reid is set to play the daughter of his character. Smith will not be appearing in the upcoming film, reportedly due to scheduling conflicts, and in April Variety reported Deadshot will not be in The Suicide Squad.
With the movie’s production set to get underway this month in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s likely fans won’t have to wait too long for the roles of each cast member to be revealed.
The script has been penned by Gunn and tells the story of a group of supervillains forced by the government to work for good and save mankind.
The Suicide Squad is set to be released on August 6, 2021.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.