'Suicide Squad' Cast Confirmed: Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie Suit Up
On Tuesday, Warner Bros. confirmed the cast for one of its anticipated DC Comics tentpoles. The Suicide Squad, a group of incarcerated villains who agree to take on high-risk black ops missions for the government in exchange for reduced prison sentences, features some of DC’s most famous bad guys, and A-list names are now suiting up for the August 2016 blockbuster.
Will Smith will play Deadshot, who is best known as a Batman villain, an expert marksman with a cybernetic eye and a death wish. It’s not Smith’s first turn in the superhero universe, as he portrayed an anti-hero vigilante in 2006’s Hancock.
Jared Leto will star as The Joker, one of DC’s most infamous villains, who has been memorably portrayed in the past by Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger. The Joker is not an original Suicide Squad team member, so DC fans will be interested to see how the wild card baddie fits in with the crew as well as how Leto’s performance stacks up to Ledger and Nicholson’s acclaimed turns.
Australian actress Margot Robbie will play Harley Quinn, the Joker’s on-again/off-again girlfriend and a major villain in her own right. The Suicide Squad film will be the character’s cinematic debut.
Tom Hardy will star as Suicide Squad group leader Rick Flagg. The role will be Hardy’s second foray in the DC Universe, having played Bane in Christopher Nolan’s 2012 Batman film The Dark Knight Rises.
Also announced on Tuesday were Spartacus and Divergent star Jai Courtney’s role as Captain Boomerang and model-turned-actress Cara Delevigne's casting as superhero/supervillain sorceress The Enchantress.
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Members of the Suicide Squad have recently been featured in the The CW’s Arrow, which stars Stephen Amell as DC hero Oliver Queen aka The Green Arrow. Michael Rowe portrayed Deadshot for an extended run on the show, while Michael Jai White’s Bronze Tiger and Sean Maher’s Shrapnel made appearances in the second season alongside A.R.G.U.S. director Amanda Waller, played by Cynthia Addai-Robinson. Batman: Arkham voice actress Tara Strong played the voice of Harley Quinn in a season two episode, though the character has yet to be formally introduced on the show.
Suicide Squad will certainly be a tentpole blockbuster for DC Comics, but which superhero franchise earns the most? Check out the breakdown in the video below.
Follow Meredith on Twitter at @em_bee_kay.
