The Suicide Squad Concept Art Reveals Deathstroke Was Considered To Lead Team

Some new concept art from The Suicide Squad reveals that Deathstroke (aka Slade Wilson) was once considered to lead Task Force X in James Gunn’s film. The artwork for The Suicide Squad appears in the new HBO Max featurette The Suicide Squad: The Way of the Gunn, which gives DC fans a nice behind-the-scenes look at the making of the latest Suicide Squad movie. Well, one of those scenes looks at James Gunn passionately pitching his vision for the movie to his filmmaking team, while some key concept artwork hangs in the background. And, sure enough, one image is of none other than Deathstroke leading Gunn’s Suicide Squad into battle!

Warning: The Suicide Squad SPOILERS Follow!

The first act of Gunn’s Suicide Squad sees Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) launch a secret two-pronged strike against Corto Maltese, using two Task Force X teams. “Team One” was the decoy team Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) led into an ambush from the Corto Maltese army; “Team Two” was the actual strike force that Waller sent in to get the mission done, led by Bloodsport (Idris Elba). It’s a actually one of the first big reveals of the film, as Task Force X Team Two wades out of the ocean and onto the shores of Corto Maltese.

As you can see in the photos above, one of the visions that James Gunn had for the Team Two reveal featured Deathstroke as the team leader. It’s understandable, as finding a leader for this version of Task Force X was actually a big problem Suicide Squad 2. When scheduling conflicts kept Will Smith from returning as Deadshot, there was a scramble about how to handle his absence: recast the character or pick a new character to lead the Squad. Ultimately, Idris Elba was given the Bloodsport role as an (obvious) stand-in for Deadshot, but pulling in Deathstroke was also one of the options on the table.

For any DC fans wondering: yes, this would’ve been Joe Manganiello‘s Deathstroke. As Manganiello told THR earlier this year:

“There was incarnation after incarnation of Suicide II, involving me versus [Will Smith’s character] Deadshot. So I went through a couple of years of that. And when the last one didn’t go, then you just put it away. And you just say, “It’s over. That was it. I went through five flaming hoops, and it’s not happening. We’re putting it down.”

Manganiello didn’t get his Deathstroke into Suicide Squad 2, Ben Affleck’s Batman movie, or any other DC movie project until Zack Snyder brought him back for Zack Snyder’s Justice League. DC Fans are still clamoring for Manganiello to get more work in the DCEU – so maybe Task Force X and Deathstroke will still meet one day.

The Suicide Squad is now in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.