Last week, Warner Bros. made it official and laid all the cards on the table, revealing most of the cast for their upcoming Suicide Squad film. Though a relatively unknown group to mainstream audiences, the Suicide Squad have been around for decades and were originally envisioned as a team of non-super powered people going on adventures against super powered beings. Following that, writer John Ostrander re-imagined the group as they’re currently known, supervillains seeking redemption and going on government sanctioned missions in which they’ll likely perish.
Following the announcement, Ostrander spoke with CBR about his thoughts on the casting for the film, saying:
“I was pleased, but I wouldn’t have guessed that it would have been one of the properties that they would do quite so quickly. That’s a heck of a slot. It’s the first movie after “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” That places them pretty high and sure, that pleases me.”
Ostrander went on to talk about Will Smith playing Deadshot and the casting for the film as whole.
“To the general public, Deadshot as a character is not well known, so they wouldn’t really notice any difference. Of course, the people doing the movies want to have the biggest star that they can, because that will help draw people into the movie. Understanding all of that, I have no problem with the casting….What I am really impressed by with all of the casting is that they are getting some very good actors to play these parts. That means Warner Bros. is very serious about this movie. They are serious about the concept….I think Hardy is an excellent actor. Jared Leto as The Joker? Oh, my. This is his first film since winning an Academy Award! That’s pretty high profile for a film called ‘Suicide Squad.’ They are taking this very seriously.”
The rumors that Oprah Winfrey was WB’s choice for the role of Amanda Waller was also brought up, which Ostrander also thought was a great choice.
“Oprah was actually at the top of my list! She showed in “The Color Purple” that she’s a really good actor, and she’s got the attitude for Waller.”
Written and directed by David Ayer, the film will star Will Smith as Deadshot, Tom Hardy as Rick Flagg, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Jared Leto as the Joker, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, and Cara Delevingne as Enchantress. Suicide Squad is set to hit theaters on August 5, 2016.
