Exclusive: Jai Courtney Teases Team Dynamic in The Suicide Squad

While chatting with the 34-year-old star for his villainous turn in the Liam Neeson-led action thriller Honest Thief, ComingSoon.net got the opportunity to chat with Jai Courtney about the highly-anticipated The Suicide Squad and discuss the new team dynamic in the James Gunn written-and-directed action pic!

Despite having the Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker take over the reins from original writer/director David Ayer (The Tax Collector), Courtney notes there wasn’t much of a different mindset coming into his return as the infamous Flash villain.

“Probably because there was so much that had been established already and I think James knew that coming in, even though he’s doing his own thing with the film,” Courtney explained. “I don’t feel like anyone felt the need to abandon what we had kind of already established, but he’s definitely the same guy, he’s not a dramatically different Boomerang. It’s just that the backdrop is a little different and there’s a whole bunch more people, so it’s going to have its own feeling and flavor about it, but people are going to have just as much fun with it and we had a great time making it.”

While joking that he doesn’t believe “Captain Boomerang will ever learn how to play nice with others” and that makes up for “part of his charm” and his status as a “liability” for the team, Courtney does express that there will be a new team dynamic coming into the soft reboot-quel, but stating it’s a “natural” thing for continuing franchises.

“It would have changed if it was the same group of people, same filmmaker or same outfits carrying on,” Courtney described. “I’ve made movies like this before where you go back and do a sequel, for instance when we did Divergent, the rule book is different, the narrative changes, everyone’s in a different part of their lives and all of that influences your experience in production. I don’t think anyone was disappointed or more excited, they kind of know that the dynamic was going to be a bit different with the crew no matter the case, but I got to meet some amazing talent that I hadn’t worked before and there are so many people in this that just kill it and do an absolutely fantastic job and have a lot of fun. It’s cool, I’m pumped for it and I hope it’s a huge success.”

The Suicide Squad cast includes: John Cena, Jai Courtney, Joaquín Cosío, Joel Kinnaman, Maylin Ng, Flula Borg, Juan Deigo Botto, Storm Reid, Pete Davidson, Taika Waititi, Alice Brage, Tinashe Kajese, Daniela Melchior, Peter Capaldi, Julio Ruiz, Jennifer Holland, Viola Davis, Idris Elba, and Margot Robbie.

As we already know, Davis, Robbie, Courtney, and Kinnaman will all play the same roles they had in the 2016 film, reprising as Amanda Waller, Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, and Rick Flag, respectively. Michael Rooker will play Savant, Flula Borg will play Javelin, David Dastmalchian will play Polka Dot Man, Daniela Melchior will play Ratcatcher 2, Idris Elba will play Bloodsport, Mayling NG will play Mongal, Peter Capaldi will play Thinker, Alice Braga will play Solsoria, Pete Davidson will play Blackguard, Natha Fillion will play TDK, Sean Gunn will play Weasel, John Cena will play Peace Maker and Steve Agee will play King Shark.

The movie is written and directed by Gunn. Charles Roven and Peter Safran will serve as producers. Nik Korda is executive producing the movie.

The Suicide Squad will hit theaters on August 6, 2021 while Honest Thief is set to hit theaters on October 16!