When your special ops team consists of a certifiably crazy Clown Princess of Crime, a cannibalistic human-crocodile hybrid, a trigger-happy marksman and a ragtag collection of other villains and scumbags, it takes a steady hand to keep things under control. In David Ayer’s upcoming supervillain team-up movie Suicide Squad, that steady hand belongs to Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), a government agent whose unassuming appearances hides a heart and mind of steel.
Amanda Waller is joined in her efforts by team leader Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and the sword-wielding Katana (Karen Fukuhara), who seem to obey her orders without question… probably because they are scared of what might happen if they don’t. With the crazy antics of Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and co., Amanda “The Wall” Waller has been somewhat overshadowed in trailers for Suicide Squad up to this point. Fortunately the latest trailer puts the spotlight on the mastermind behind Task Force X.
In the comics, Amanda Waller is usually found straddling the line between good and evil, and her plan for the Suicide Squad is pragmatic – if cold-blooded enough to make Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) proud. As outlined in previous trailers, the team of villains and criminals are valuable precisely because they’re expendable, and if their missions go wrong the government can deny having anything to do with them. Oh, and if they step out line, they die. Now that’s good motivation.
This trailer actually contains a wealth of new footage – not only in the form of fresh dialogue from Waller but also interactions between her and Rick Flag, and Rick Flag and Deadshot (Will Smith). The relationship between the latter two looks interesting; though Deadshot is a Belle Reve prisoner like the rest of the Squad, Flag seems to have more respect for him than the others (perhaps because he recognizes him as a fellow soldier-type), and at one point tries to hug him (it doesn’t go well).
Despite the fact that we’ve now seen a lot of footage from Suicide Squad, the trailers have been chaotic enough that they’ve made it difficult to work out the order of the scenes or the overall plot. Hopefully this means there will be plenty of surprises still in store when audiences finally get to see the movie next month.
Suicide Squad opens in U.S. theaters on August 5, 2016, followed by Wonder Woman on June 2, 2017; Justice League on November 17, 2017; Aquaman on July 27, 2018; an untitled DC Film on October 5, 2018; Shazam on April 5, 2019; Justice League 2 on June 14, 2019; an untitled DC film on November 1, 2019; Cyborg on April 3, 2020; and Green Lantern Corps on July 24, 2020. The Flash is currently without a release date.
