James Gunn Wrote ‘The Suicide Squad’s’ Bloodsport for Idris Elba
By George Robbins
As we are all now currently aware of, ‘Suicide Squad‘ is a movie that released back in 2016 which saw the gathering of many DC comic book villains. This gathering of villains was rightfully named the titular Suicide Squad because they were forced by the government to go on life or death missions to save the world. This is the premise behind the comic books of the same name and we saw a glimpse of this with the movie when it released back in 2016. The premise was a good one as it saw the opportunity for villains to be seen as anti-heroes instead of just the straight-up terrible people we knew them to be. Hence, the movie was stacked to make it worthy of the public’s adoration, but so much ended up going wrong with the film.
When the film first released, it was a movie that many DC fans were very much looking forward to seeing because it allowed for another side of the DC universe to be seen. It gave people the chance to bear witness to a part of the DC universe where villains were given a more expanded role than the ones normally seen on screen. For instance, when a villain is usually seen on screen, they are often times shown to be the epitome of evil and we aren’t given a chance to sympathize with them. Thus we do nothing throughout the movie but root for the heroes to succeed in their mission of defeating the villains and saving the day. This is pretty sad though, because the DC universe is one that is full of relatively sympathetic villains, but also has its share of lunatics.
‘Suicide Squad’ was meant to show off a combination of both of these types of villains by giving us a story focusing on the titular squad and their foes. The enemies of the Suicide Squad are the villains that we know we can’t root for and we know that they are the worst of the worst. Whereas, we know that the members of the squad are the more sympathetic characters that we can put ourselves in the shoes of. Unfortunately, this is not how the movie ended up working out and we ended up with a film that just ended up being confusing. At this point in time, it has now become apparent that this is definitely not how the movie was intended to be. Director David Ayer has said that there were many changes made before the film’s release.
In the released film, much of what happened on screen ended up confusing the general audience at large and ended up being a huge negative for the franchise. No one who went to see the movie could see things the way that the director originally intended which gave the movie a muddled tone that no one could truly understand. This turns out to have been the case because, apparently, the studio was responsible for making a lot of changes to the film after it was already finished. Ayer admitted that the reshoots for the film were not his idea and that very little of what he actually wanted in the film was able to make it in. After the announcement that a Director’s Cut was going to be releasing for 2017’s ‘Justice League,’ Ayer made it clear that he wants to release his own cut for ‘Suicide Squad.’
Needless to say, the 2016 release was pretty much considered to be a disappointment by many fans and thus we ended up with a film very few liked. It wasn’t considered a terrible film, but it definitely wasn’t one that people were happy with as it received mixed reviews from all over. Thus, it is not too much of a surprise that the studio is now trying to draw peoples’ attention back to the franchise with the upcoming movie ‘The Suicide Squad.’ This upcoming film is also known as ‘Suicide Squad 2,’ but it is less a sequel and more of a spiritual sequel to the original film with mostly new characters. Unlike the previous film, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy‘ director James Gunn is manning the helm for this film. Not only that, the movie will also feature an entirely new cast of characters for us to follow throughout the film.
Gunn has made it clear so far to the public that it will be his version of the movie, and not a studio one, that we will end up seeing in theaters next year. During the recent online convention for DC content known as DC FanDome, fans were given the chance to see the first content related to ‘The Suicide Squad,’ including what characters we would be seeing in the film and who would be playing them. Named chiefly among these characters was the character Bloodsport who will be played by actor Idris Elba. We have known that Elba was attached to the project for quite some time, but we never knew who he was playing in the film until recently. It turns out, in a strange twist, that Gunn wrote the character for Elba before even having the chance to meet the man as he saw the character as a perfect fit for him. We will really get to see if this was the correct move for Gunn to make when the film releases in early August of next year.