As soon as the news broke yesterday that Thor: Ragnarok actor/director Taika Waititi was being considered for a role in James Gunn‘s The Suicide Squad, making him the latest Marvel/DC crossover actor in a movie that will have a handful of them, fans immediately wanted to know what Waititi would be doing in the film. There are almost endless possibilities, of course, but it’s always fun to sit down and try to suss out just what might be in the cards. We’ll probably be wrong, of course, but what can we say? We’re geeks. This is just the kind of thing we do.
The Suicide Squad will host a table reading in on September 11 with the film’s assembled cast. Production will hopefully begin on September 23 barring any table read complications.
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As for the film’s cast, The Suicide Squad has assembled a line up which would make Marvel Studios jealous. With Gunn at the helm as director, Margot Robbie will reprise Harley Quinn. Viola Davis will play Amanda Waller once more while Jai Courtney and Joel Kinnamon reprise their roles. A slew of newcomers have also been added like Idris Elba, Steve Agee, Nathon Fillion, Daniela Melchior, David Dastmalchian, and more.
So…who might Waititi be playing? Read on…!
Mr. Mxyzptlk
With a dapper wardrobe and an impish demeanor, you can certainly see why people would think Superman villain Mr. Mxyzptlk would be a solid candidate for a Waititi character. While it seems like he might be a little too powerful to really fit in with the rest of the team Gunn has assembled, you never know what dynamic they might have or what role a character like Mxy might play in, say, rewriting the reality of the movie to avoid continuity snarls with other DC Films.
Kite-Man
Hell yeah.
Solovar
The head of Gorilla City could be a great fit for Waititi, who understands providing voices for hulking CG characters since he was Korg in Thor: Ragnarok. He also has what it takes to either give Solovar a regal air or to use a voice that is completely incongruous with his body, both of which could be good things.
And it just seems like a movie with King Shark might also use talking gorillas.
Scarecrow
His frame would totally work with the Scarecrow character, and if Rahul Kohli in the Harley Quinn animated series is any indication, they aren’t especially averse to giving the role to somebody with an accent. So this might be a fit, although the extent to which a character that important to Batman lore would be available with a Batman franchise and a Batwoman TV show both coming up soon is anybody’s guess.
Maxwell Lord
If they wanted to set up some inter- or even intra-agency feuds that could play out in potential sequels and risk the nature of the Squad itself, introducing the idea of Checkmate and Maxwell Lord might be a good place to start. And Lord is one of those guys who doesn’t inherently need to have a specific look or feel to him, since he’s a blank slate to movie audiences.
Ted Kord
We have been mostly thinking of him as a potential villain (for good reason — it’s the Suicide Squad, after all), but he certainly has the physical presence, humor, and intensity to be Ted Kord if DC/WB was interested in setting up a Blue Beetle movie down the line. As in the current comics, our guess is that Kord would be a tech pioneer with a passion for justice ,and not an actual costumed superhero — but it would also make sense to include him, at least potentially,since the movie features Peacemaker, who came to DC as part of the same acquisition as Beetle did.
The Demon
It would be motion capture and, in all likelihood, would have to be a pretty small role because he is so powerful he might overwhelm the movie — but it would be a ton of fun to see Waititi dig into Etrigan the Demon, who rhymes when he talks and tortures his human host.
Literally any cannon fodder character
A solid likelihood, since his character has not yet been named and this is, after all, the Suicide Squad, is that he will play some third-tier villain who ends up dying early in the film, a la Slipknot from the David Ayer movie. With Waititi’s comic instincts, a similar idea could be a lot better delivered…but if that’s the goal, then we don’t really need to guess who he will be, becuase he could be just about anybody.
Tom Kalmaku
He’s got the experience for the job, and if Katana isn’t going to be around, Gunn COULD use another non-convict to help move things along!
