James Gunn Reveals The Inspiration For The Suicide Squad's Weasel
James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad" is the upcoming sequel to 2016's "Suicide Squad," and like the first film, it will follow a ragtag bunch of supervillains from the DC Expanded Universe who are forced to team up and fight evil. For a film like "The Suicide Squad," the big draw is really the ensemble; fans love finding out which of their favorite antiheroes made the team, and then finding out which ones survive the film and which ones don't — it's called the "Suicide Squad" for a reason. Rumors about which characters will appear in "The Suicide Squad" have been popping up in the form of set photos. In October 2019, a batch of photos revealed that director James Gunn's younger brother, Sean Gunn, had been cast in a then-unconfirmed role as a CGI character (via ComicBook.com). Since then, it's been revealed that he is playing Weasel.
DC Comics fans already know Weasel, who made his comic book debut in 1985. Weasel's alter ego was John Monroe, and his nemesis was the superhero Firestorm. In the comics, Monroe was a physics student with a weaselly and unlikable personality who became Weasel in order to murder his former classmates who used to tease him. He later joined the Suicide Squad and was killed off in 1988.
Weasel is a bloodthirsty supervillain, but in "The Suicide Squad," it looks like he'll have a playful side, too. Recently, James Gunn revealed his inspiration for the character.
Weasel comes from DC comics, but James Gunn's version was inspired by a comic strip
On May 28, James Gunn tweeted a photo of his brother Sean wearing a shirt that showed Bill the Cat, the orange feline from Berkeley Breathed's long-running comic strip, "Bloom County." Bill the Cat is one of the weirder characters ever to frequent newspaper comics sections. A hyper, mumbling, drug-addicted wildcard, Bill is known for trying practically any scheme to become rich and famous. He's been everything from a rock star to a televangelist to a presidential candidate. Given what we know about Weasel in "The Suicide Squad," it makes a lot of sense that Bill the Cat inspired him. Weasel only briefly appears in the trailer for "The Suicide Squad," creepily licking the glass in his prison cell. But that moment made a strong first impression, giving fans major uncanny valley vibes. Weasel is already the subject of memes, just like his fellow Suicide Squad teammate King Shark.
Sean Gunn is already well known for playing another CGI character in his brother's films, Rocket Raccoon from the "Guardians of the Galaxy" franchise. But in an interview with The Movie Dweeb, Sean Gunn admitted that playing Weasel is a very different beast. For example, he actually had to lick the glass when filming that scene.