The Suicide Squad Director Reveals Why He Cut One Bloody Death Scene

In The Suicide Squad, no character was safe with several meeting fairly gruesome ends. Others, however, had deaths that were no less jarring but were perhaps less gory, including The Thinker (Peter Capaldi). The sadistic scientist in charge of Project Starfish met his end at the hands – metaphorically speaking – of the alien creature he’d been experimenting on for decades and while it was by no means a clean death, according to filmmaker James Gunn, there was a much bloodier version and now, he explains why he cut that version from the film.

Gunn shared the recently-released gag reel from the digital release of The Suicide Squad on Twitter and asked fans their thoughts on the deleted scenes and commentary. One fan asked why the gorier version of The Thinker’s death was cut from the film and Gunn explained that it ultimately came down to the moment being an “unnecessary pause” in the film.

“Most things for me come down to my gut and pacing,” Gunn wrote. “That moment came at a time when we’re really moving – boom boom boom – and although it’s glorious (VFX work by Weta) it acted like an unnecessary pause in the film.”

That isn’t to say that The Thinker’s death was without gore in The Suicide Squad. Starro did suffer three decades of torment, after all, but a more brutal death wasn’t the only Thinker-related scene cut from the film. Gunn previously revealed that there was a scene featuring Polka Dot Man (David Dastmalchian) leading to The Thinker suffering an ear injury that also didn’t make it to the final version of the film.

“You’ll be able to see the deleted scene on the Blu Ray (sic),” Gunn wrote previously on social media. “Thinker tries to manipulate Polka Dot Man into helping him and PDM almost gives in but instead shoots him in the ear.”

The Suicide Squad‘s cast includes Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Margot 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), Sylvester Stallone as the voice of King Shark, Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher 2, John Cena as Peacemaker, Michael Rooker as Savant, Flula Borg as Javelin, Peter Capaldi as Thinker, Nathan Fillion as TDK, 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, and Taika Waititi as Ratcatcher.

The Suicide Squad is available to own digitally now and will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on October 26th.