With so much apparent turnover taking place in James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, it was interesting that Will Smith's Deadshot character was one that needed to stick around. After it became known that Smith was leaving the sequel/reboot over scheduling issues, Idris Elba entered talks, a prominent name for what is shaping up to be a very prominent role for the distinct approach Gunn is taking to the team of supervillains.
According to THR, Gunn's version of Suicide Squad will draw heavily on the classic John Ostrander/Kim Yale run of the comic in the 1980s. During that time, Deadshot was the central character and de facto team leader. He was the character that drew me to the series and made it one of my favorites at the time. But that Deadshot was very different than the one seen in the 2016 film and in the recent run of comics, in which he's motivated by a desire to be reunited with his daughter. The older version of Deadshot aka Floyd Lawton had a deathwish, and sought increasingly suicidal missions in hopes of having a worthy death.
If this turns out to be true, it might explain why Gunn is looking to fill out the roster with expendable villains such as Ratcatcher, Polka-Dot Man, Peacemaker, and King Shark. He'd be able to kill them off with impunity and in increasingly hilarious ways, without affecting the future of the DCEU in any way. The only spanner in the works might be the inclusion of Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn. If she returns, there's zero chance of her dying and that may lessen the stakes involved.
I stick to my belief that Harley Quinn will have a cameo that explains her absence from the team, allowing things to move forward without her. She's got enough to do over on Birds of Prey. The casting of Elba also tells me that Warner Bros. has bigger plans for Deadshot beyond The Suicide Squad, as they did when Smith was in the role.
Elba isn't confirmed for Deadshot yet but fans are already giving us a clue to what he may look like (via Boss Logic) as the crackshot assassin. I can dig it.
