The Suicide Squad: Peter Capaldi Reveals His Introduction To DC’s The Thinker

Doctor Who veteran Peter Capaldi will play The Thinker in James Gunn’s upcoming movie The Suicide Squad…but he hasn’t checked into the comics to get a sense for the character. Instead, Capaldi told ComicBook’s Brandon Davis that his starting point was the screenplay for The Suicide Squad. It makes some kind of sense, given that Capaldi’s version of the character will be an entirely new character with the same power set, created for the film and likely making his way into the comics eventually. Still, it’s interesting to hear him break down exactly how he made sense of this strange and complicated character, who exists in a strange and heightened reality.

Little has been seen so far about just what it is that Capaldi will do with the character. In the trailers, all we get his his recruitment to Task Force X.

“My introduction was the script. I just read the script. James asked me to do it and then sent me the script, and I thought the script was great. And that’s really where I took it from. I dug into some of the comics, which is an archeological dig to have a look at his various in comics. It was quite difficult to pin down exactly who he was because he changes so much. And also, he seems to be quite old and then he disappears, and then he comes back again. And I thought it was quite confusing. I thought I’d be better just to cleave to the script. Stick with the script and try and conjure up that Thinker, as opposed to making a connection with the comics. The first thing when you go on the internet and call him up, you get a little drawing of him in the orange jumpsuit, which kind of is iconic for him and did, I think, influence James and our Thinker. But yeah, no, I just tried to do what the script tells me to do. It’s quite tricky. I mean, James is brilliant, I think, but it’s a very heightened sort of world that you have to try and exist in and be funny and scary at the same time.”

In The Suicide Squad, welcome to hell — a.k.a. Bell Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out — even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. Today’s do-or-die assignment? Assemble a collection of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin, and everyone’s favorite psycho, Harley Quinn. Then arm them heavily and drop them (literally) on the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese.

The Suicide Squad will see the return of Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Joel Kinnaman as Colonel Rick Flag, and Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang from 2016’s Suicide Squad. Joining them in the film are David Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man, Steve Agee as King Shark, Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher 2, Idris Elba as Bloodsport, John Cena as Peacemaker, Nathan Fillion as T.D.K., Pete Davidson as Blackguard, Flula Borg as Javelin, Mayling Ng as Mongal, Peter Capaldi as The Thinker, Michael Rooker as Savant, Alice Braga as Sol Soria, and Sean Gunn as Weasel.

The Suicide Squad is set to be released both in theaters and on HBO Max on August 6th.