Warning! Spoilers for The Suicide Squad. 

New concept art from James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad shows Deathstroke leading the second team instead of Idris Elba’s Bloodsport. The DCEU’s latest entry revived David Ayer’s 2016 film Suicide Squad as a spiritual reboot, bringing back four characters (Harley Quinn, Rick Flag, Amanda Waller, and Captain Boomerang) from the original film, but otherwise filling Task Force X with a new slate of idiosyncratic super villains. Early on, The Suicide Squad splits Task Force X into two teams, one to distract the soldiers of Corto Maltese and the other to infiltrate the island nation unnoticed.

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While most of the first team quickly dies (and that was largely the point), the second team is meant to be the elite group of the batch of prisoners at Belle Reve. Davis’ Amanda Waller handpicks Elba’s Bloodsport to lead the team, telling him that she will turn him into a leader even if he doesn’t want to be one. Of course, throughout the film, Bloodsport becomes just that, leading the remaining members of the squad against Starro the Conqueror’s attack on the capital of Corto Maltese. Now, it looks like that entire plot arc could’ve been a lot different.

In an HBO Max featurette titled Way of the Gunn (via DCVERSO on Twitter), concept art for The Suicide Squad shows Deathstroke leading team two instead of Bloodsport. One image shows Deathstroke leading Peacemaker, Polka Dot Man, Ratcatcher 2, and King Shark through choppy waters, presumably when they initially land on the beaches of Corto Maltese. Another piece of concept art, seen behind Gunn as he explains something to the crew, shows a rendering of what Deathstroke would look like in the film. Check out the images below:

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Prior to the final conception of The Suicide Squad, there were various iterations in which Deathstroke was planned to appear. Joe Manganiello played Deathstroke in the main DCEU, appearing in both the post-credits scenes of Justice League and the Snyder Cut. These appearances set the character on a path to confront Ben Affleck’s Batman in a solo Caped Crusader movie, but that never came to fruition. At one point, Deathstroke was going to fight Will Smith’s Deadshot in a Suicide Squad sequel and there were even various solo films planned based around Manganiello’s character.

Watching Deathstroke lead team two would have changed things in The Suicide Squad exponentially. In fact, the story about Bloodsport and his daughter is arguably one of the things that brings the ending full circle. With Deathstroke being an all around more ruthless villain, The Suicide Squad could have lost some of its heart in the process. Still, the opportunity to see Manganiello fulfill his potential as Deathstroke is an enticing one, but that time may never come as the DCEU moves away from the SnyderVerse.

Source: The Way of the Gunn (via DCVERSO)

Key Release Dates
  • The Batman (2022)Release date: Mar 04, 2022
  • DC League of Super-Pets (2022)Release date: Jul 29, 2022
  • Black Adam (2022)Release date: Oct 21, 2022
  • The Flash (2023)Release date: Jun 23, 2023
  • Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)Release date: Mar 17, 2023
  • Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2022)Release date: Dec 16, 2022
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Graeme Guttmann
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Graeme Guttmann is an editor, writer, and interviewer for Screen Rant. With a love for all things pop culture, he watches just about everything from the biggest blockbusters to reality shows like Real Housewives. He currently resides in Boston, MA where he is an MFA candidate at Emerson College for creative writing. You can follow him on Twitter @cryptograeme for pop culture commentary and random musings about pop music and just about anything else.

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