James Gunn debuts first look at ‘The Suicide Squad,’ loves Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn at DC FanDome
If you thought director James Gunn did wonders for Marvel’s cosmic misfits, just wait till you see what he has in store for DC Comics’ most colorful bad guys.
The “Guardians of the Galaxy” director gave the world a first look at his massive cast —and the many explosions that come with them — in “The Suicide Squad” (in theaters Aug. 6, 2021), a follow-up of sorts to the 2017 hit “Suicide Squad.” Gunn unveiled a character introduction and a behind-the-scenes clip that shows the gritty 1970s war-film vibe with the filmmaker’s signature style.
“I loved the movie ‘The Dirty Dozen,’ and this was like a supervillain version,” said Gunn, who added that “The Suicide Squad” has been “by far the most fun I’ve ever had making a movie.”
Gunn revealed a good chunk of his very large Squad on Saturday. Margot Robbie reprising her role as Harley Quinn, is among the returning members from the original movie alongside Viola Davis (as Amanda Waller), Joel Kinnaman (Rick Flag) and Jai Courtney (Captain Boomerang).
New additions include Idris Elba as Bloodsport, Pete Davidson as Blackguard, John Cena as Peacemaker, Michael Rooker as Savant, Peter Capaldi as The Thinker, Flula Borg as Javelin, David Dastmalchian as Polka Dot Man, Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher 2, Nathan Fillion as T.D.K., Mayling Ng as Mongal, Alice Braga as Sol Soria, and Sean Gunn as Weasel.
Gunn sees the new film as a “sequel” to John Ostrander’s 1980s “Suicide Squad” comic-book run, and his favorite character back then was Waller, who was “so different for the time in terms of being such a strong woman, kind of an antihero but kind of bad, kind of good, and not physically the same as everyone else you saw in comic books. I just thought she was so cool.”
In terms of making the new movie, however, Gunn was most excited about writing Robbie’s Harley. “There’s a chaotic trickster-god nature to her where she’s just always going off in random directions,” he said. “And as a writer, that’s a really fun thing to deal with because she takes you to places you don’t know you’re going to go.
“A lot of it was me writing for Harley, and a lot of it was Harley doing some of the writing for me.”
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