Things were looking up for the Suicide Squad after James Gunn was brought on board to direct, and Margot Robbie was confirmed to be reprising her role as Harley Quinn. However, the film has lost another star: Will Smith won’t be returning for the sequel as Deadshot.
The actor cites scheduling conflicts as the reasoning, although Smith doesn’t currently have many projects on his plate. When The Suicide Squad is scheduled to shoot in autumn, he will likely be doing promotional work for Ang Lee‘s Gemini Man. He’s also currently filming Bad Boys For Life.
Of course, “scheduling conflicts” is the go-to term whenever an actor leaves a project, so who knows if it’s true. With Gunn’s film being more of a soft reboot, it would make sense for Warner Bros. to want a big star like Smith back. However, it would also make sense if they wanted to get as far away from the poor reception of the first film as possible.
With Robbie’s Harley Quinn essentially being the only well-received aspect of David Ayer‘s 2016 film, why not just bring her back and reboot everything else? She’s also headlining her own female-driven ensemble in Birds Of Prey, but will likely be a big part of The Suicide Squad as well.
Whether this means the Deadshot role will be recast or simply not used is unknown. Gunn was able to make a ragtag crew of mostly unknown characters into stars with Guardians Of The Galaxy, so there’s no reason he can’t do the same here. We’ll learn more about the project as the production date nears. The film will shoot in Atlanta in September, and is scheduled to hit cinemas on August 6, 2021.
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