‘The Walking Dead’s Tom Payne Wants in on James Gunn’s ’Suicide Squad’

Former The Walking Dead star Tom Payne appears to be interested in joining the Suicide Squad relaunch under Guardians of the Galaxy writer-director James Gunn.

On Thursday, Payne tweeted the “thinking face” emoji in response to a Hollywood Reporter piece posing the question, “Who will be in James Gunn‘s ‘The Suicide Squad?’”

The DC Comics group — which has long operated as a continually evolving team with a rotating membership of typically super-powered criminals tasked with undertaking dangerous government missions — has included such notable members as Bronze Tiger, King Shark, Black Manta and Deathstroke.

Payne, who has since ended his run as martial arts expert Jesus on The Walking Dead, said in recent months he hopes to “get back into film.”

“I love the completed arc,” he said at New York Comic Con.

“Like episodic television is great and especially Walking Dead is amazing, but it’s nice to be on a project where you know your beginning, middle, and end, so I’m looking forward to maybe doing some more stuff like that.”

The star, who underwent a three-year training regimen to convincingly portray a skilled fighter, admitted he was left disappointed by his tenure on the show, which left him feeling underused and frustrated with little opportunity to display his martial arts ability.

Payne exhibited his combat prowess in The Walking Dead Season Eight when pit against Morgan Jones (Lennie James) and later displayed his skills in a graveyard-set battle in what would prove to be Jesus’ final stand in a Season Nine Walking Dead episode.

“A lot of the times I was like ‘Come on, I want to do more, I want to do more,’” Payne said in December at a New Jersey convention.

“And I got that one fight with Lennie which was good, but I was really building up to that whole last sequence for a long time and I’m really happy that they wrote that in and gave me an opportunity to really go crazy with it.”

It has yet to be learned which characters studio Warner Bros. is eyeing for its semi-rebooted Suicide Squad, which THR says will feature “a mostly all-new cast of characters and actors.”

Will Smith, Margot Robbie and Jared Leto headlined the first film, released as part of the shared DC Extended Universe in 2016. Though critically mauled, the David Ayer-directed Suicide Squad earned more than $746 million worldwide.

The Suicide Squad is set for August 6, 2021.

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