Last night, the news broke that Will Smith will not be reprising his role as Deadshot in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, and going by previous reports, he won’t be the only star of David Ayer’s 2016 film who doesn’t return for the sequel. But while Gunn’s upcoming DC flick is expected to serve as a soft reboot for the series, a source close to WGTC has alleged that the movie will still have at least one familiar face in Viola Davis as Amanda Waller.
Though plans can still change before the film goes into production later this year, the ruthless intelligence officer seems like a natural choice to bring back for Gunn’s reimagining of the series. A fitting point of comparison might be Emma Thompson’s Men in Black character Agent O, who features in both Men in Black 3 and the upcoming reboot Men in Black: International. Like Davis, Thomspon plays a boss behind the scenes, whose return in the property’s next installment ensures a degree of consistency despite the change in leads.
In any case, though it’s currently believed that most of the cast from the first Suicide Squad won’t be coming back for the team’s next outing, a recent article from Forbes alleged that Harley Quinn is still expected to return. And while the report couldn’t say if Margot Robbie would be reprising her role, that’s certainly looking like the most probable path, especially when the actress herself is still very much active in the DCEU (granted, that didn’t stop Warner Bros. from finding another Joker).
In any case, there’ll be plenty of time for casting announcements before The Suicide Squad hits theaters on August 6th, 2021.