Suicide Squad Script Included Ben Affleck's Batman From the Start

07/11/2016 01:35 pm EDT

In March 2015, a month before filming began on Suicide Squad, it was reported that Batman would have a strong presence in the film; however, there was no mention of him appearing in the film aside from footage of his exploits being shown. On April, 28, 2015, Ben Affleck was spotted arriving in Toronto, where Suicide Squad was being filmed, and two days later, he was seen on the set wearing a large cloak, hiding the top-half of his Batsuit. Once that photo came out, everyone knew with 100% certainty that Batman would appear in Suicide Squad.

But then the question became: How big of a role does Batman have? Some speculated that Affleck would just be making a small cameo, but that was soon put to rest in late-May (2015), when the Batmobile from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice rolled up on the set. Thanks to set videos and photos, we learned that Batman will hop onto a pink sports car that is being driven by The Joker and has Harley Quinn in the passenger's seat. On top of that, in April 2016, Will Smith revealed that Deadshot will also cross paths with The Dark Knight. Nevertheless, nobody is quite sure how big the role is, but we do know for certain that it isn't small.

During a Suicide Squad set visit that ComicBook.com and other press attended, director David Ayer was asked if he wrote Batman into his original script.

"Absolutely," Ayer replied. "Yeah. For sure. Short answer yes."

And why did he decide to add him? "If you're going to a do a DC comic books movie, you want Batman," he explained. "I'm a little bit of a fan boy. You know, I grew up reading Batman comics. The old Adam West show. I had the toy car. It's something important to me and I think that it's every filmmaker's dream to be given such an iconic asset like that. Really, to see when the suit shows up on set, you have Ben in the suit and everything. It's really ... F--k. It's really cool."

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?

Written and directed by David Ayer based on the characters from DC Comics, the film stars Will Smith ("Ali"), Jared Leto ("Dallas Buyers Club"), Margot Robbie ("The Wolf of Wall Street"), Joel Kinnaman ("RoboCop") and Viola Davis ("The Help"). The cast also includes Jai Courtney ("Insurgent"), Jay Hernandez ("Takers"), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje ("Thor: The Dark World"), Ike Barinholtz ("Neighbors"), Scott Eastwood ("Fury"), Cara Delevingne ("Paper Towns"), Adam Beach ("Cowboys & Aliens"), and Karen Fukuhara in her feature film debut. It is produced by Charles Roven and Richard Suckle, with Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder, Colin Wilson and Geoff Johns serving as executive producers.

Suicide Squad opens worldwide in 3D, and in 2D, and in select IMAX 3D theaters beginning August 5, 2016.

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