In the wake of Warner Bros. announcing a whole bunch of movies based on characters from DC Comics, the one that’s jumped into the lead in terms of rumor and fan speculation is Suicide Squad. Part of it is because Warner promised to cast “A-list talent” in its four main roles, while the rest has to do with the fact that the idea is just plain cool.
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If you can imagine a modern take on The Dirty Dozen, but with super villains running the dangerous missions in return for potential pardons from their sentences, you’ve just about got it. Add in a sense that anyone on the team might not make it back at any time and some great character development and you’re talking about the formula that John Ostrander used to make the Squad so compelling in the late 80s. Yet the concept has proven so popular that DC has continued to revisit it all the way through the New 52 relaunch and up to the present.
Let’s assume for the sake of argument that Warner and DC will dip into every incarnation of the team to pick characters since the film continuity doesn’t have to be chained to any particular era of comics. It’s also a safe bet that even with four main roles, there are going to be a few more villains in the film, even if some of them end up as cannon fodder.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at five bad guys and girls we want to see on the big screen when Suicide Squad hits theaters in 2016.
(Quick aside: though he’s not a villain, it would be great to see Rick Flag Jr. on the team as well. It would give the Squad at least one relatable character, and there’s a lot of mileage the writers could get out of having one normal guy trying to deal with these relatively unstable and unwilling operatives.)
5. Bronze Tiger
Every covert ops team, even one with members who possess super powers, needs a kick-ass martial artist. Bronze Tiger certainly fills that role, as Ben Turner is one of the most skilled hand-to-hand combatants in the DC Universe.
In the comics, his sense of honor was an entertaining contrast to some of the more mentally unbalanced members of the team, and he often served as the conscience and field leader of the Squad. Again, the viewers will need a couple characters to root for in ways other than the “that villain is kind of cool” way, and Turner just makes sense.
Is the full tiger mask a bit much for a movie? Quite possibly, but Bronze Tiger has made plenty of comics appearances without it, and maybe the writers can save it for a particularly dramatic fight scene for maximum effect.
Just a thought, but Will Smith’s name has been thrown around in the initial wave of casting rumors. It’s difficult to envision Smith as one of the more ruthless, bloodthirsty villains, but wouldn’t he be perfect in this role? We think so.
4. Thinker
Someone needs to be the brains of the operation, and since it’s unlikely that Warner/DC would go the Oracle route, we’ll go with Cliff Carmichael instead. Thinker can be the guy behind the scenes, helping his teammates stay one step ahead of whatever enemies they’re going to face.
He’s also completely untrustworthy, as seen in the comics when he made multiple attempts to go rogue or turn members of the Squad against each other. One of them eventually cost Carmichael his life.
That makes the Thinker a good source for some dramatic tension. Imagine someone you depend on to help you in the field while also knowing he could be playing you for his own reasons — and he’s almost certainly much smarter than you. This could be a juicy role for the kind of well-known actor that Warner Bros. wants in this movie.
3. Captain Boomerang
Already a colorful member of the Flash’s Rogues for years before he ended up on the Suicide Squad, Captain Boomerang really came into his own as part of the team. Unfortunately for his teammates, bad things tended to happen to them on occasion when he showed his true colors, including one who Boomerang used as a guinea pig to see if the explosive bracelets used to control the villains were legit. You can probably guess what happened to that guy.
Long-serving members of the Suicide Squad learned not to rely on Digger Harkness, yet he was also motivated by an intense desire to be taken seriously, and opponents underestimated him at their own peril. There really are a lot of facets to his personality, and he also stands out as a villain that a talented actor could really sink his teeth into.
You’d probably need to tone down his movie outfit from his garish traditional costume, although that could also be played for laughs until you saw his deadlier side. Digger is famously Australian, the kind of man who wears his love of country on his sleeve. He’s also as slimy as they come, the proverbial villain you love to hate. Hopefully he makes the cut.
2. Harley Quinn
Sometimes you need to do things just for the fans when it comes to super hero movies, and this would be a move to take advantage of a character’s popularity among the existing fan base. Just so you know what we’re talking about, this is someone who DC was essentially forced to write into comics after seeing the fan reaction to her in Batman: The Animated Series.
Would Harley Quinn work without the Joker connection to establish her? We think she could, as she’s well-developed enough on her own by now. She’d serve as another wild card, as she’s delightfully unhinged and unpredictable. And while the word is that Warner is going for a serious tone for all of its comic book movies, Harley could add a few comedic moments to the movie as well.
It also goes without saying that there needs to be a few female roles among the main characters. Amanda Waller, the gruff authority behind the Squad, certainly counts as one, but there needs to be at least one or two in the field as well. The team has several intriguing possibilities, but putting Harley in the film would guarantee some positive buzz from comic fans right off the bat.
1. Deadshot
No character benefited as much from being on the Suicide Squad as Floyd Lawton. Formerly a Batman villain with some interesting mental quirks who was stuck in the shadow cast by the Joker and the Dark Knight’s more colorful foes, Deadshot became one of the really vital members of the Squad for many years.
He fills the badass quotient since he never misses what he shoots at, and it would be easy to come up with a movie costume that amps up his cool factor from visuals alone. Deadshot would also serve as a counterpoint to the more unruly villains, as he really doesn’t care as much about who he’s ordered to take out — or more importantly, why he’s being told to do it.
Since Lawton has a special kind of death wish, wanting to go out with a bang, he’d also right in the thick of what are sure to be some spectacular action sequences in the movie. You want guns and explosions, this is your guy, and the fact that he’s not all right in the head just makes him more compelling. We’d be absolutely shocked if the Suicide Squad script doesn’t include Deadshot.