Contradicting earlier reports, it appears that Idris Elba won’t be playing Deadshot in James Gunn’s Suicide Squad reboot/sequel, after all.
Instead, the 46-year-old British actor will play a brand new character, who wasn’t introduced in the original movie. As of yet, it’s unknown whether this will be an entirely new creation or one plucked from the pages of the DC comic books.
Variety, who originally reported on this story, has stated that the movie’s creative team felt that it would be disrespectful towards Will Smith (who played Deadshot in 2016’s Suicide Squad) for Elba to jump in his shoes. They’re also hoping that the 50-year-old actor and media personality will reprise the role in potential future Suicide Squad movies. Unfortunately, Smith couldn’t star in Gunn’s vision for the Suicide Squad because of scheduling conflicts.
However, fans can expect to see his former castmates Margot Robbie, Jai Courtney, and Viola Davis reprise their roles as Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang and Amanda Waller respectively. Joel Kinnaman will also jump back into the DCEU with his character Rick Flag.
In a Joblo article from over two weeks ago, Shazam! and Aquaman producer Peter Safran described the movie as a “total reboot”. Simply titled The Suicide Squad, the movie is expected to introduce a slew of new characters as well as bringing back the returning ones mentioned above.
The Suicide Squad has been delayed in the past due to its initial script being too similar to another work-in-progress DCEU movie, Birds of Prey (which also stars Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn). James Gunn not only directs the film but has completely rewritten the script to boot. Since he’s also known for directing another franchise about a ragtag bunch of anti-heroes, he should do pretty well in this regard.
Expect to see The Suicide Squad hit the silver screen on August 6th, 2021. But if you can’t wait to see more of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, you’ll see her a year earlier in Birds of Prey on February 7th, 2020.
Are you disappointed Deadshot won’t be in this film? Let us know in the comments below!
