The Suicide Squad comes with a tag that some characters are definitely going to die. This was no Russian roulette for James Gunn, who revealed how decided the fate of these characters for the movie.
Heroic Hollywood has a pass into the early screening of The Suicide Squad, where the attendees had a lovely Q&A with director James Gunn, courtesy of Warner Bros.
We’re on the edge of our seats, desperate to know who makes it out alive of the suicide mission in the film. And it would do well to prepare for the unexpected — lest we have an instance like Margot Robbie, who only belatedly found out that Harley Quinn was killed out in Justice League Snyder Cut.
For Gunn, this process of selecting which Task Force X members would die was more about organically going where the story took him, rather than a random “eenie, meenie, money, mo … you’re dead!”
Of course, he knew for sure some characters from DC’s vast roster just couldn’t make it out alive. That is why he specifically chose them, bringing them out of the comic onto the silver screen for the first and last time. Here’s how he explains it.
It’s fun watching people die. Sometimes it was really pretty organic. I mean, I had to choose what characters I was going to use from DC and I had a huge trove of characters to choose from. Some characters I knew were gonna die from the beginning. And then other characters, I didn’t know for sure that they were gonna die.And so, obviously, I chose some characters that I knew were going to die. And we see that as the movie plays out.
James Gunn
You may also notice that this Suicide Squad is a tad different from the previous ones. Gunn plays a “What if …?” of his own, to bring in characters from all over the spectrum to make up his Sucide Squad. Now where else would you see a practical Bloodsport, fighting alongside Javelin, who uses a javelin to ward off a machine gun?
Although Gunn grew to care about the characters as if he were part of Task Force X too, he knew his job as director and writer demands him to be more of an Amanda Waller — who without emotional involvement needs to use the characters as the plot seems fit. Despite this, he discloses that there were deaths that tugged at his heartstrings.
As you go further into the movie, some of the deaths later in the film, still break my heart. Every time I watch, there are two characters in particular that when they die, I still get teary eyed… It still really kills me,
There are two characters who die later in the film that turned in amazing performances, at their best that are like, ‘Oh my god,’ […] And in another way, it’s weird because I am Amanda Waller, I’m pushing that button on those characters. Because it serves our purposes as an audience to see them go.
James Gunn
What you wouldn’t expect someone to say of the burden of killing off characters is how liberating it can be. But for James Gunn, and for all of us watching, this reflects the creative freedom given to the film.
And even if simply for that, The Suicide Squad makes for an interesting experience.
About The Suicide Squad
The Suicide Squad is an upcoming American superhero film based on the DC Comics team of the same name. Produced by DC Films, Atlas Entertainment, and The Safran Company, and set for distribution by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is intended to be a standalone sequel to Suicide Squad (2016) and the tenth film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU).
Directed and written by James Gunn, the cast includes Idris Elba, Viola Davis, Sylvester Stallone, Jai Courtney, Peter Capaldi, Nathan Fillion, Michael Rooker, Joel Kinnaman, Margot Robbie, John Cena, Mayling Ng, Sean Gunn, Taika Waititi, David Dastmalchian, Storm Reid, Alice Braga, Pete Davidson, Jennifer Holland, Flula Borg, Daniela Melchior, Tinashe Kajese-Bolden, Julio Cesar Ruiz.
The movie’s official synopsis reads, “Welcome to hell – aka Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out – even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X.”
Source: Heroichollywood
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