Comedian Steve Agee Cast as King Shark for James Gunn’s the Suicide Squad

After plenty of speculation, rumors, and even director James Gunn seemingly teasing the character’s arrival thanks to a specifically-themed birthday cake earlier this month, it is official: King Shark will be part of The Suicide Squad and comedian Steve Agee has been cast in the role.

According to a report from Deadline, Agee will be giving voice to the super villain character. A humanoid shark, King Shark first appeared in Superboy vol. 3 #0 in 1984 and at various points in comics history has had connections with the Suicide Squad. Notably, King Shark was even a part of the team in Suicide Squad Vol. 4. A fairly popular villain, King Shark has appeared live-action several times in The CW’s Arrowverse. Previously it had been reported that the character could appear in The Suicide Squad. It was also reported that Guardians of the Galaxy star Michael Rooker was in talks to play the character, Rooker himself refuted the claim.

Agee has previously worked with Gunn, having played Gef, a member of the Ravagers in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Agee has also appeared in Lifetime’s American Princess, NBC’s Superstore, FX’s You’re the Worst, and Fox’s New Girl among other shows. He’s also done voice work on Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time and Netflix’s Twelve Forever. And, if that wasn’t credit enough, Agee was also a writer for 306 episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Outside of the King Shark update, not much is known about The Suicide Squad just yet, though Gunn recently teased “explosions and falling structures” in the film. Pitch Perfect 2 star Flula Borg was also recently announced as having been cast in an unnamed role for the film, joining Margot Robbie, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, and Joel Kinnaman along with Idris Elba, David Dastmalchian, and Daniel Melchior.

Producer Peter Safran previously told ComicBook.com Gunn’s film is “not a sequel” despite its returning cast of core characters. “It’s called The Suicide Squad,” Safran said. “It’s not Suicide Squad 2. It is not a sequel. I will leave that alone but, yes, it’s called The Suicide Squad.”

Safran later described the project as a “total reboot,” telling JoBlo, “It’s everything you would hope from a James Gunn script and I think that says a lot and that promises a lot and I know that we will deliver a lot.”

Filming will get underway in late September and run through late January in Atlanta. Gunn, who will complete work on his DC Comics-inspired film before returning to Disney-owned Marvel for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, took to social media to share his collection of Suicide Squad comic books in April; there he hinted his film will borrow from John Ostrander’s famed run.

Warner Bros. releases The Suicide Squad August 6, 2021.