Official First Look at DC's Suicide Squad
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Over the weekend, fans attending San Diego Comic Con were treated with a special first-look at DC's upcoming film, Suicide Squad. Featuring a ridiculously talented cast that includes Margot Robbie, Will Smith, Cara Delevingne, amongst others, and End of Watch's David Ayer helming, Suicide Squad is just one of DC's re-vitalized attempts at not only re-shaping their united DC film universe, but to also change the superhero film script up by featuring villains as the protagonists.
In the clip, which was leaked over the weekend following its closed doors reveal at San Diego Comic Con, each character is highlighted as the nexus of their formation is revealed. The big twist, however, is the surprise appearance by Jared Leto's oft-criticized Joker. As far as first looks go, this footage hits the right balance of showing off just enough to get fans more hyped while not spoiling the film outright.
As I mentioned previously, DC released the footage following a bootleg video of the Suicide Squad SDCC-exclusive clip. The studio had this to say, posted on the Suicide Squad Facebook:
"Warner Bros. Pictures and our anti-piracy team have worked tirelessly over the last 48 hours to contain the Suicide Squad footage that was pirated from Hall H on Saturday. We have been unable to achieve that goal. Today we will release the same footage that has been illegally circulating on the web, in the form it was created and high quality with which it was intended to be enjoyed. We regret this decision as it was our intention to keep the footage as a unique experience for the Comic Con crowd, but we cannot continue to allow the film to be represented by the poor quality of the pirated footage stolen from our presentation."
- Sue Kroll, President Worldwide Marketing and International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures
Suicide Squad will be in theaters in August 2016.
Will Smith, Jared Leto Among Stars Cast in DC's Suicide Squad Adaptation
DC and Warner Bros. found themselves backed against the wall when Marvel Studios overtook Hollywood with its unified cinematic universe dating back to 2008's Iron Man and every Marvel Studios release since. It's important to note that Marvel Studios' films are separate from other Marvel franchises owned by separate studios, e.g. Fox's X-Men and Fantastic Four and Sony's Spider-Man. Nevertheless, with Marvel's consistent blockbuster films, many other studios have wanted to follow the same formula of a unified cinematic universe (like the aforementioned Fox and Sony).
DC and Warner Bros., meanwhile, found success and reinvigorated faith in their film properties with Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy, and even won me over as a slight Batman fan, but the entirety of that run was left separate from the overall scheme of things. Their first attempt at building a universe, 2011's Green Lantern, was a critical and box office failure, and further delayed the companies' plans. That all changed with Man of Steel's release last year, with the film's box office and critical success enough for the companies to build from. Since then, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was announced, Justice League was officially confirmed, then DC and WB's full slate of films for the next six years were announced.
Of those new films announced, the most interesting was 2016's Suicide Squad with Fury and End of Watch director David Ayer attached. Suicide Squad is essentially DC's version of Marvel's Thunderbolts where a band of villains are united to take part in black ops operations for the government in exchange for commuted sentences. Beyond the great concept, DC and Warner Bros. swung for the fences yesterday when they officially revealed the ensemble cast attached to the film.
Suicide Squad will star Will Smith as Deadshot, Jared Leto as The Joker, Tom Hardy as Rick Flagg, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney as Boomerang, and Cara Delevinge as Enchantress. Each and every actor listed is on their way to becoming bonafide Hollywood stars (if they're not already there in the case of Smith, Leto, and Hardy). Certainly, Marvel's long list of actors represents a large percentage of who's who in Hollywood, but DC's new ensemble features many of the other high-profile actors not snatched up by Marvel.
Finally, it appears DC and Warner Bros. know what they're doing with their film properties and can pose a serious threat to Marvel's box office returns. We'll have to play the waiting game to see how it all plays out. I'll still plant my flag in Marvel's camp, but I can honestly say I finally have more than a passing interest in what DC is offering.
[via /Film]