James Gunn Responds to Tommy Wiseau Casting Himself in The Suicide Squad

The Suicide Squad writer-director James Gunn says he didn’t know he signed on for a “Klumps sort of deal” — referring to Eddie Murphy’s simultaneous performances in The Nutty Professor and its sequel, The Klumps, where Murphy portrays multiple characters — after The Room director Tommy Wiseau jokingly cast himself in every Suicide Squad role on Twitter. In a tweet published Monday, Wiseau shared a mockup of The Suicide Squad‘s cast announcement, writing, “Wiseau Serious?”

Gunn recently confirmed his full cast, including returning Suicide Squad stars Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Viola Davis (Amanda Waller), Joel Kinnaman (Rick Flag) and Jai Courtney (Captain Boomerang) alongside franchise newcomers Idris Elba, Michael Rooker, Peter Capaldi, Nathan Fillion, Sean Gunn, David Dastmalchian, Storm Reid, Taika Waititi and John Cena. Other cast additions include Pete Davidson, Juan Diego Botto, Joaquin Cosio, Flula Borg, Tinashe Kajese, Jennifer Holland, Julio Ruiz, Alice Braga, Steve Agee and Daniela Melchior.

Joker star Jared Leto is apparently not involved. Wiseau previously campaigned for the opportunity to play that role on Twitter when it was first reported Joker director Todd Phillips was looking to cast Joaquin Phoenix in his origin movie.

“I can’t play the Joker, they wanted to do another one,” Wiseau previously told ComicBook.com. “Because I don’t want to say negative [things] about actors, but I go by emotion. Meaning that my background as stage actor, getting into the emotion, what you can feel through The Room as well, all the progress for what I did. Sometimes they don’t let me, they say ‘too much emotion.’”

Wiseau then said he could “definitely” play the Joker, telling us he thinks he “could do a good job” if given the chance.

“I mean, I’m into it, very much so. So we see if Hollywood gives me a chance, and they’re respectful,” he said. “So if they don’t give me [a] chance, maybe another character would somebody pitch to me, to [The Room star] Greg [Sestero], whatever.”

Gunn most recently shared a new look at his cast — sans Wiseau — on Instagram, two days after initiating filming on his first film set in the DC Extended Universe.

“First of all, we don’t call it Suicide Squad 2 ’cause it’s a total reboot,” producer Peter Safran previously told JoBlo when asked about the connection between Gunn’s film and its David Ayer-directed predecessor. “So it’s The Suicide Squad and I think people should be extremely excited about it. 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.”

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