Who Will Idris Elba Play In 'The Suicide Squad' Now That He Isn't Deadshot?

By Jodi Smith | Industry | April 9, 2019 |

By Jodi Smith | Industry | April 9, 2019 |

About a month ago, I wrote about Idris Elba joining James Gunn’s Suicide Squad reboot — called The Suicide Squad — and taking over Will Smith’s Deadshot role. Well, Elba is actually taking on a whole new role in the movie, though the specific character is unknown.

Based on an Instagram post by the director and writer Gunn, many believe Elba will take on the character Bronze Tiger/Benjamin Turner. He’s the one on the left, portrayed most recently in Arrow’s second and seventh seasons by Michael Jai White. The DC animated movie Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay also featured Bronze Tiger (Billy Brown) last year.

Many also believe the cover is a nod to Gunn’s intent to take multiple characters and storylines from the 1980s run of the comics by John Ostrander. We can only hope the styles won’t take the same cue to that time because wow, those are some super rad costumes (SARCASM!).

Along with news of Elba’s possible new role, Variety confirmed the probable returns of Viola Davis as Amanda Waller and Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang. GeekTyrant seems to think that Joel Kinnaman will be back as Rick Flagg and I am not mad at any of this.

I’m interested to see where Gunn takes the reboot and whether he does take it back to the 1980s, which would be strange considering the upcoming Harley Quinn-led movie doesn’t appear to be. Maybe Warner Bros. and DC are going to keep unproblematic actors and actresses in roles while allowing them to portray the same characters in different timelines and films while also dropping their Jared Letos for Joaquin Phoenix. I suppose we will continue to see.

The Suicide Squad is set to hit theaters on August 6, 2021.