James Gunn Celebrates The Suicide Squad Creator John Ostrander's Birthday With Set Photo

To celebrate John Ostrander's birthday, James Gunn showed some love for the creator of The Suicide Squad on Instagram. Gunn has taken on The Suicide Squad as an R-rated DC Comics extravaganza movie, never making a secret of the fact that he is adapting a considerable amount of content from Ostrander's work with the group in comics. To honor Ostrander further, Gunn invited him to make a cameo appearance in the film as a character named Dr. Fitzgibbon, as there is a Fitzgibbon in every one of Gunn's films. Ostrander celebrated his 72nd birthday on Tuesday.

"Happy birthday to John Ostrander, the creator of The Suicide Squad - the founder and foundation of our film," Gunn wrote in an Instagram post. "Here we are on set while shooting his role as Dr. Fitzgibbon." Ostrander wrote his first Suicide Squad comic in 1987, a series which ran through 1992.

Check out Gunn's post from the set of The Suicide Squad in his Instagram photo below!

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Gunn is very active and engaged with fans across social media. One fan asked, "James, would you say that the [John] Ostrander run is the biggest influence in your version? Any cameos that you can't tell us about?" This was when Gunn revealed the influence Ostrander's comic book work had on the upcoming film.

"Without a doubt, John Ostrander's Suicide Squad is the biggest influence on the film (along with Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen). John's a good actor too, playing Dr. Fitzgibbon in the movie," Gunn said in a tweet back in February of 2021. "We had a huge poster of this in our production office while shooting."

The Suicide Squad's cast includes Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Robbie as Harley Quinn, Idris Elba as Bloodsport, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flagg, David Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man, Steve Agee as John Economos and King Shark (on-set reference), Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher 2, John Cena as Peacemaker, Michael Rooker as Savant, Flula Borg as Javelin, Peter Capaldi as Thinker, Nathan Fillion as Tok, Mayling Ng as Mongal, Pete Davidson as Blackguard, Sean Gunn as Weasel, Joaquin Cosio as General Mateo Suarez, Juan Diego Botto as Luna, Storm Reid as Tyla, Alice Braga as Sol Soria, Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt, Sylvester Stallone as King Shark, and Taika Waititi in an unknown role.

Are you excited for The Suicide Squad? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram!

The Suicide Squad is currently scheduled to premiere in theaters and on HBO Max on August 6th.