The Suicide Squad Reveals New Look at Idris Elba’s Badass and Brutal Bloodsport

The Suicide Squad unleashes a new look at the badass and “brutal” Bloodsport (Idris Elba), the high-tech armored assassin who throws in with a band of “B-grade supervillains” in director James Gunn‘s first DC movie. In the DC Extended Universe-set Suicide Squad follow-up, Elba plays Robert DuBois, a cool-looking killer jailed for shooting Superman (Henry Cavill) with a Kryptonite bullet. When Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) conscripts him into Task Force X, the squad of expendable “loser” villains, Bloodsport aims at a commuted prison sentence and a shot at a reunion with daughter Tyla (Storm Reid).

“Each one of these heroes, they’re all from different genres of movies,” Gunn said during The Suicide Squad‘s presentation at Brazil’s virtual CCXP convention on Sunday. “Idris’ character, Bloodsport, he’s actually a pretty cool character. He looks cool, his costume is cool.”

Added Elba, “I think James described it: he has a very cool costume. His costume is seriously innovative and technically advanced, and he’s the only guy that can use it. And in this film, he gets to show it off — and he’s brutal.”

In the DC comic books, DuBois is a paramilitary-styled mercenary gripped by his obsession with the Vietnam War and one of three people to don the identity of Bloodsport. For his “insane” take on the crew of disposable delinquents, where characters are often “splattered in blood,” Gunn looked to John Ostrander’s classic run of Suicide Squad.

“What I really loved about John Ostrander’s original run of the Suicide Squad was it was about a bunch of loser, B-grade supervillains,” Gunn said. “It really is about instinct and who is going to be best for joining the story, and a lot of them are losers.”

TDK (Nathan Fillion) is a “little less cool” than Bloodsport, Gunn quips, and Peacemaker (John Cena) is straight out of “a 1970s TV [show], in-between Wonder Woman and Captain America.” Unlike 1970s television, however, Cena says the R-rated and “quite graphic” Suicide Squad is “gonna make you sh-t your pants.”

Also starring Margot Robbie, Jai Courtney, Joel Kinnaman, Michael Rooker, David Dastmalchian, Steve Agee, Daniel Melchoir, Flula Borg, Mayling Ng, Alice Braga, Sean Gunn, Peter Capaldi, and Taika Waititi, The Suicide Squad premieres on HBO Max and in theaters on August 6, 2021.