James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is expected to bring back most of the cast of David Ayer’s 2016 movie, but will also add in a few new big names. None of the rumored additions have grabbed fans’ attentions more than John Cena, though. The WWE legend has reportedly signed on to replace Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy pal Dave Bautista in the DC villain team-up film and for the first time, Cena has now responded to the rumors.
While speaking with The Wrap, he avoided either openly confirming his casting or outright denying it but instead commented that he would be “very grateful” to find a role in the film if the opportunity arose.
“You have to get everything buttoned up before you can make it official, I don’t want to say anything … I will just say that if that opportunity presents itself, then I will be very grateful to take it.”
A couple of months ago, it was said that Cena could be playing Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad. Real name Christopher Smith, the Peacemaker is a buff military man who’s so dedicated to maintaining peace that ironically he’s not above resorting to violence to do so. Fun fact: Alan Moore partially based Watchmen’s Comedian on the character.
Other actors reportedly joining Task Force X include Ant-Man‘s David Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man, Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher and, of course, Idris Elba as not Deadshot (probably Bronze Tiger). As for the original cast, Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Viola Davis (Amanda Waller), Jai Courtney (Captain Boomerang) and Joel Kinnaman (Rick Flag) are amongst those confirmed to return.
Benicio del Toro is expected to play the villain, meanwhile, with whispers pointing to Michael Rooker portraying King Shark. The Suicide Squad goes before cameras this September, before arriving in cinemas on August 6th, 2021.