Suicide Squad’s TV and Animated Appearances Did Not Inform Movie At All

Before DC's Suicide Squad headed to the big screen, there were a number of other iterations that fans became familiar with.

Obviously, there's the comics, which director David Ayer said were pulled from considerably, but then there were also appearance on Arrow and an animated direct-to-home video feature film tied into the Batman: Arkham universe.

And, yes, many fans' first introduction to the characters was through those media, rather than the comics themselves – where, frankly, this version of the Suicide Squad didn't completely exist prior to the movie ramping up. As with Guardians of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad built a new "version" of the team using characters who had a history with the Squad and putting them together in a new way that worked for the movie they wanted to make.

"They're completely separate," producer Richard Suckle told reporters during a set visit. "They're treated completely separately. Whatever similarities or differences that may actually occur are really coincidental. What we're doing is what we're doing. What they do on Arrow, like when you see Amanda Waller or whomever it may be, that's their version, that's their incarnation of Amanda Waller or whichever character you would necessarily see that may also appear in other versions in other medium."

Of course, you're not seeing Amanda Waller –or Deadshot, or Captain Boomerang – on Arrow anymore, as it seems the TV producers have opted to kill off or write off most of the Suicide Squad characters so as to not deal with "brand confusion" stemming from an upcoming movie.

It feels good to be bad…Assemble a team of the world's most dangerous, incarcerated Super Villains, provide them with the most powerful arsenal at the government's disposal, and send them off on a mission to defeat an enigmatic, insuperable entity. U.S. intelligence officer Amanda Waller has determined only a secretly convened group of disparate, despicable individuals with next to nothing to lose will do. However, once they realize they weren't picked to succeed but chosen for their patent culpability when they inevitably fail, will the Suicide Squad resolve to die trying, or decide it's every man for himself?

Suicide Squad hits theaters August 5, 2016.