James Gunn Went To Hilarious Lengths To Keep This Suicide Squad Detail A Secret
With James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad" fast approaching — its release date is August 6 — the anticipation amongst eager fans is only growing by the day. Following 2016's "Suicide Squad," this upcoming film with a similar title is somewhat of a standalone sequel, as it will include a few of the same characters — Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Col. Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) — but explores a new storyline with a bulk of new characters. These new characters include Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), Blackguard (Pete Davidson), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior) and Bloodsport (Idris Elba).
Gunn recently took to Twitter to post about the upcoming film, writing, "Heroes – while supplies last. #TheSuicideSquad See it on the big screen August 6." An excited fan replied to Gunn's post, asking a question that was likely on countless curious moviegoers' minds. The fan, Twitter user @a_posthumous, wrote, "I realize you're unlikely to see this, but I've wondered if you filmed alternate scenes for the deaths of any characters to keep leakers, or even cast, from guessing the real direction of the narrative."
Well Gunn did indeed see the fan's question and even responded — and his answer is hilarious.
Idris Elba's character was kept under ultra-tight wraps
In response to the fan's question, James Gunn tweeted "No but to keep [Idris Elba's] character from getting out we called him Vigilante in the script & on his chair back. We kept it so secret that, we were a week away from finishing shooting & the production designer, Beth Mickle, said, "wait, he's not Vigilante?"
You know a detail has been successfully kept under wraps when even someone involved isn't in on the secret. While Elba's casting was public knowledge during production of the film, his character, Bloodsport, wasn't revealed until August 2020 at the DC FanDome event, which Gunn attended (via Polygon). The most recent trailer for "The Suicide Squad" focuses on Bloodsport, who is in prison for "putting Superman in the ICU with a Kryptonite bullet," as Amanda Waller explains. Bloodsport is reluctant to join the team, but agrees to it after Waller uses his daughter as leverage.
On Twitter, while replying to the fan, Gunn also added another behind-the-scenes fact. He continued, "Oh also some of the cast just recently saw the end of the film for the first time (or haven't seen it yet) because most of them only got the script up until the point their character dies." We'll just have to wait and see which of these characters don't make it to the end when the film premieres this August.