Filmmaker James Gunn’s birthday celebrations ended up giving DCEU fans an unexpected treat. The main cast of the filmmaker’s upcoming movie The Suicide Squad got together (virtually) to wish Gunn. The video, which was shared on Twitter, also contained references to the characters the actors will be playing, many of whom have had the identity of their roles kept tightly under wraps so far.
Awww. This room suddenly got dusty. ❤️????❤️ https://t.co/Xxth9eLQog
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) August 5, 2020
The video starts with Margot Robbie doing a brief impression of her Harley Quinn persona, confirming her return to the now-iconic role. That information was already known to fans. What is not known so far is what characters Idris Elba, John Cena, and David Dastmalchian will be playing in the movie.
In the birthday video, Elba’s voice while wishing Gunn has been manipulated to make it deeper and guttural, seemingly confirming that the actor will be playing the role of Bronze Tiger.
Meanwhile, Cena can be seen playing a video game where he is wielding two submachine guns and speaking in military lingo, hinting that the wrestler-turned-actor will be playing Peacemaker, as fans have been speculating for some time.
Dastmalchian greets Gunn while his face is dotted with colored spots, meaning it is very likely that the actor is playing Polka-Dot Man. There are quite a few other actors whose roles are still not known, including Pete Davidson and Peter Capaldi, but Gunn has promised that new information regarding the movie will be released very soon. Fans also want to know what is going to happen to Deadshot, played by Will Smith, who was essentially the main lead alongside Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn in the previous Suicide Squad movie, and who was at one point thought to be played by Elba in the reboot.
The secrecy around The Suicide Squad is in stark contrast to the approach taken by Warner Bros. for the 2016 version of the film helmed by David Ayer. Back then, the identities of the various members of the squad were hyped for months before marketing for the movie even began, and great emphasis was laid on Jared Leto’s take on the Joker, who ended up having a minuscule role in the actual movie.
Perhaps Warner Bros. is trying to avoid making that mistake by keeping details about The Suicide Squad under wraps until marketing is set to begin. In the meantime, the noise surrounding the Ayer cut of Suicide Squad is also gaining strength online, although Warner has been steadfastly ignoring that noise so far.
Written and directed by James Gunn, The Suicide Squad features a stellar ensemble cast consisting of Margot Robbie, Viola Davis, Joel Kinnaman, Jai Courtney, David Dastmalchian, John Cena, Joaquin Cosio, Nathan Fillion, Mayling Ng, Flula Borg, Sean Gunn, Juan Diego Botto, Storm Reid, Pete Davidson, Taika Waititi, Alice Braga, Steve Agee, Tinashe Kajese, Daniela Melchior, Peter Capaldi, Julio Ruiz, Jennifer Holland, Idris Elba, and Michael Rooker. The film is expected to arrive in theaters on Aug. 6, 2021.