From the mind of writer/director James Gunn, DC fans across the country are in for a treat as “The Suicide Squad” — the most degenerate delinquents in the DC lineup will be blasting their way onto HBO GO from November 4.
Welcome to hell — a.k.a. Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. It’s where the worst supervillains are kept and where they will do anything to get out — even if it means joining the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X.
Task Force X is a motley crew of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin and of course, Harley Quinn. They’re armed heavily and dropped literally on the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese. Trekking through a jungle teeming with militant adversaries and guerrilla forces at every turn, the Squad is on a search-and-destroy mission with only Colonel Rick Flag on the ground to make them behave…and Amanda Waller’s government tech in their ears, tracking their every movement. And as always, one wrong move and they’re dead (whether at the hands of their opponents, a teammate, or Waller herself). If anyone’s laying down bets, the smart money is against them — all of them.
Directed from his own screenplay, Gunn takes the criminals of Task Force X on an outrageously visceral, wild ride that blends non-stop action and life-or-death situations with irreverent humor and even heartfelt moments, all filtered through Gunn’s singular vision.
With the entire DC canon to choose from for his dream team of supervillains, Gunn was the proverbial kid in a candy store — if that store sold comic books. After just a weekend of revisiting legendary writer John Ostrander’s run from the 1980s that reintroduced the Squad, a favorite of Gunn’s as a boy, the auteur’s ideas began to crystalize.
“I have loved the Suicide Squad since I was very young,” Gunn states, “they’re one of my favorite groups of comic book anti-heroes. I’m always interested in people who have not lived their best lives and have an opportunity to become something better — a chance at redemption. Some of them take it, some don’t; it’s humanity in all its various degrees of morality, and I get to put it on screen in a really grand, exciting way, with aliens and monsters and a walking shark.”
The film was produced by Charles Roven and Peter Safran, with Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder, Walter Hamada, Chantal Nong Vo, Nikolas Korda and Richard Suckle executive producing.
Gunn’s vision of his Squad was so clear that, though each character is an established supervillain in their own right, he manages to imbue them all with a sense of redemption…or at least the possibility of it. While he went for some of the big-name villains, he primarily opted to include more obscure characters who many readers would consider expendable, cultivating within each of them their most endearing traits, ensuring audiences would root for them and their cause against seemingly impossibly stacked odds.
The film stars Margot Robbie (“Birds of Prey,” “Bombshell”), Idris Elba (“Avengers: Infinity War”), John Cena (upcoming HBO Max series “Peacemaker,” “F9”), Joel Kinnaman (“Suicide Squad”), Jai Courtney (the “Divergent” franchise), Peter Capaldi (“World War Z,” BBC’s “Doctor Who” ), David Dastmalchian (upcoming “Dune,” “AntMan and the Wasp”), Daniela Melchior (“Parque Mayer”), Michael Rooker (the 2 “Guardians of the Galaxy” films), Alice Braga (“Elysium”), Pete Davidson (“The King of Staten Island,” TV’s “Saturday Night Live”), Joaquín Cosio (“Spider-Man: Into the SpiderVerse,” TV’s “Narcos: Mexico”), Juan Diego Botto (“The Europeans”), Storm Reid (“The Invisible Man,” “A Wrinkle in Time”, “Euphoria”), Nathan Fillion (“Guardians of the Galaxy,” TV’s “The Rookie”), Steve Agee (“Brightburn,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”), Sean Gunn (the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, the “Avengers” films), Mayling Ng (“Wonder Woman”), Flula Borg (“Ralph Breaks the Internet”), Jennifer Holland (“Brightburn,” upcoming HBO Max series “Peacemaker”) and Tinashe Kajese (TV’s “Valor,” “The Inspectors”), with Sylvester Stallone (the “Rocky,” “Rambo” and “Expendables” franchises), and Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Suicide Squad”).
