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Trivia / Suicide Squad (2016)

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  • Ability over Appearance:
    • Amanda Waller is normally portrayed as a Big Beautiful Woman. Here she is played by the comparatively more svelte Viola Davis, who manages to have the same commanding presence she has in the comics.
    • Then of course there's Will Smith as Deadshot. In comics and all other media, Deadshot is a white guy. Of course, him being Will Smith, he's got the star power and talent to make up for any comic-accurate discrepancies.
  • Acting in the Dark: Jai Courtney said he was surprised by Flash's cameo in the film, as it was not in the script. He assumed he was being taken in by a SWAT team or Flagg himself. He did say it makes perfect sense in hindsight. It's also been said that adding Flash was part of the reshoots, as they had the actor with his costume all ready for Justice League. Zack Snyder indeed filmed Ezra Miller separately on the Justice League set, which was stitched together with Ayer's footage of Courtney for the final scene.
  • All-Star Cast: The cast is made up of both very well-known actors and actresses (Will Smith, Jared Leto, Jai Courtney, and Viola Davis) and up-and-coming stars (Cara Delevigne, Margot Robbie, and Joel Kinnaman).
  • Approval of God:
  • Awesome, Dear Boy:
    • Jai Courtney, who admits he really doesn't have an interest in doing comic book or superhero movies, signed on almost immediately just so he could work with director David Ayer.
    • Jared Leto jumped at the opportunity to play the Joker, noting that he loved the opportunity to get to play a character so evil.
    • Will Smith chose to play Deadshot in this movie rather than reprise his Star-Making Role from Independence Day in its sequel Resurgence because not only did he want something new, but also because he "never played a character that legitimately didn't give a fuck". Also Batman.
    • Margot Robbie was also vocal about how much she loved playing Harley Quinn, this despite how hard it was to perform the entire movie in stilettos.
  • Baby Name Trend Starter:
    • And a Baby Name Trend Killer. In the US, the film gave a large, if short-lived, boost to Harley as a girl's name, but in the UK, it did precisely the opposite, largely due to the two countries being Separated by a Common Language. In the US, Batman: The Animated Series, which originated the character of Harley Quinn, had already shifted the perception of Harley from being a boy's name to a girl's name back in the '90s. However, the show was never as popular in the UK as it was in its home country, and so the Brits still saw Harley as a boy's name. As such, when the film came out in 2016, Americans saw Harley as a cool, badass name to give a baby girl, but the Brits saw it as a horrible name to give a baby boy.
    • Lots of parents also named their daughters Margot after the actress who played Harley, Margot Robbie.
  • Banned in China: The villain is magical, which censors prohibit there.
  • Billing Displacement: For his role as the Joker, Jared Leto is billed second, but has little involvement in the main story of the film and only appears on-screen for about seven minutes. Also, Karen Fukuhara, who is making her film debut, does not get her name on the poster or by herself in the end credits, appearing after the rapper Common who gets its own solo credit and flashy background despite only having less than two minutes of screen time.
  • California Doubling: This time around, Toronto was standing in for Gotham and Midway City.
  • Cast the Runner-Up: Jai Courtney was rumored to have originally been cast as Deadshot, while Smith was said to have originally been chosen to portray Captain Boomerang. Both actors are in the movie, but their parts were flipped around. This makes sense as Boomerang is Australian, as is Courtney, while Deadshot became a larger role which is more fitting for a leading man like Smith.
  • Creator Backlash:
    • Jared Leto was upset about how little he appeared in the film, having done quite a few more scenes that ended up being cut. During an IGN interview he asked if he was still in the movie at all. In spite of this, Leto appears to be willing to come back to the role, and even said that a lot of the "Method Acting horror stories" were exaggerated and he loved working on the project.
    • Ayer has said that in hindsight, he should've gone with the Joker as the main antagonist, as Enchantress and her magical Mooks turned out to be a bad tonal fit for the Squad. While promoting Bright at San Diego Comic-Con the following year, he also made some thinly-veiled comments that seemed to suggest that he was unhappy with Suicide Squad's PG-13 rating, as well as WB's Executive Meddling. In a much later Twitter conversation, he also admitted that the Joker's much mocked "Damaged" tattoo was not a good idea, saying "It was one step too far."
    • Since the announcement of Zack Snyder's Justice League and in the wake of personal attacks on him from people reviewing The Suicide Squad, Ayer has been even more vocal about the heavy Executive Meddling that radically changed the film's story and tone and scrapped a lot of his scenes, especially regarding the relation between Harley and the Joker.
    • Producer Jon Berg, who came to head DC Films shortly after the film released, said that Suicide Squad was a disappointment narratively, and that while the characters were handled well, the story and writing let them down.
    • Joel Kinnaman later said in an interview that while he thought the characters and interactions were great, the movie went off the rails during the third act. Like Ayer, he also stated that the Squad should've faced a more grounded threat instead of magic and monsters.
  • Dear Negative Reader: A week before the release of The Suicide Squad, David Ayer released a statement in response to the renewed hatred against this film (some prominent reviews for the former film took potshots at the original and at Ayer himself), expressing that he refused to be a quitter yet was sick of the hate against him over a movie that was essentially ripped out of his hands and torn apart by a studio that by this point has become infamous among the DC fandom for its extreme Executive Meddling. It should be noted that Ayer is completely supportive of James Gunn and his vision for The Suicide Squad; Gunn, in turn, has spoken in favor of releasing Ayer's cut of the first film.
  • Dyeing for Your Art: Margot Robbie had to practice gymnastics and shooting firearms (and acknowledged she "didn't have the physical strength to allow myself to do those things, even the gun training"), endured a three hour makeup process that made her skin white and covered in tattoos, and an impractical Stripperiffic outfit with stiletto gym shoes. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje went through a five hour makeup process (and if that wasn't hot enough, in many scenes he's under layers of clothing). Jared Leto cut his hair and dyed it green, shaved his beard and eyebrows, and worked out a lot. All this makes Will Smith shaving his head and growing a beard look tame in comparison.
  • Early Draft Tie-In: The novelization features several cut scenes and plot points.
  • Enforced Method Acting: David Ayer worked extensively with the actors to get them into the right frame of mind for their performance. Cara Delevingne described her audition process as being unexpectedly grueling (Reading the part of Martha from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and being asked to play it several ways), and even before getting the role she felt like killing someone. Viola Davis said Ayer would give her different dialogue to say to the castmates, often with harsh language, so their response to her carried the right sense of apprehension.
  • Executive Meddling: David Ayer's vision did not quite match the rapidly changing tastes of Warner Bros. executives, who wanted the film's tone to match that of the Bohemian Rhapsody trailers, specially after the backlash Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice got for its somber tone. The film's Troubled Production began, and its commercial success despite the critical thrashing made execs confident enough to meddle on Justice League as well later on. Ayer has made it clear since that the released film is not what he intended it to be.
  • Executive Veto: David Ayer wanted substantially different looks for Enchantress and Incubus, which were vetoed by Warner Bros. execs and changed into their theatrical versions.
  • Fake American: The actors of Harley Quinnnote , Rick Flagnote , Killer Crocnote , Slipknotnote , and Enchantressnote .
  • Fake Nationality: Downplayed with Katana. She's Japanese by both ethnicity and nationality, who is played by Japanese-American actress Karen Fukuhara. Still, it's refreshing to see an Asian character played by an Asian of the correct ethnicity, as opposed to the usual in Hollywood.
  • Follow the Leader:
    • Made after the success of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), also about a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits who are lesser-known comic characters, and has had similar marketing right down to the 1970s pop hits in the trailers.
    • On his Twitter account, David Ayer confirmed that the success of Deadpool (in addition to the negative response to Batman v Superman) was a major factor in why the film was heavily reshot and reedited to be more comedic and lighthearted.
  • Lying Creator:
    • People involved with this film announced the villain of the movie would be a new character called "The Adversary". No such character exists and the Big Bad ended up being Enchantress, as many speculated.
    • Some people involved in the production claimed that the reshoots were not a sign of Executive Meddling or trouble behind the scenes. Assuming the article in the Troubled Production section is correct, The Hollywood Reporter later published a piece which revealed that was what happened after all.
  • Method Acting: Jared Leto made some headlines for how dedicated he was for his performance as The Joker. He never broke character on set and sent gifts to his cast mates in character, including a live rat to Margot Robbie. Scott Eastwood noted that he became scared of Leto's behavior in spite of being good friends with him in real life. Will Smith said that despite talking with and acting next to him he never felt like he actually met Leto until after filming was over.
  • Missing Trailer Scene: Many of the taunting or comedic moments are absent from the final cut, no doubt due to the various reshoots and Executive Meddling. For the specifics:
    • The scenes of the Joker in his tux dropping a bomb with a "bye-bye!"
    • The scene of the Squad in a bar and El Diablo asking for just water. Pleasantly, this was restored for the extended cut.
    • Deadshot saying "Let's go save the world."
    • Even the Joker's "I can't wait to show you my toys."
    • El Diablo in a cell, rather than a tank.
  • No Stunt Double: Margot Robbie did Harley Quinn's elevator fight scene herself, amazing the rest of the cast and crew as she did it in heels and did not require wires or other special effects to perform Harley's agility.
  • Playing Against Type:
  • Promoted Fanboy:
    • A given for most of the cast. But Will Smith said that even he, an A-list actor with dozens of big blockbuster movies in his resume, geeked out when the Batmobile showed up.
    • Will Smith also said he looked forward to providing the definitive take on Deadshot.
  • Prop Recycling: Joker has Liberace's Ak from End of Watch.
  • Role Reprise:
  • Sending Stuff to Save the Show: There's been a fan campaign that ran parallel to the one that resulted in Zack Snyder's Justice League to see the original version/director's cut (pre-Executive Meddling) of David Ayer released, with its own hashtag (#ReleaseTheAyerCut). Unlike what happened with Zack Snyder's version of Justice League, Warner Bros. seemingly has no intention of releasing it.
  • Star-Making Role: Sort of. Margot Robbie first gained international attention with The Wolf of Wall Street but this is widely considered to be the film that truly made her a superstar, with Wolf essentially becoming to her what Brokeback Mountain was to Heath Ledger after The Dark Knight came out.
  • Those Two Actors: Will Smith and Margot Robbie co-star for the second time after Focus only the previous year.
  • Troubled Production: The writing process for the film was very rushed, with writer-director David Ayer (Fury (2014), End of Watch) completing the screenplay in just six weeks.note  The backlash against Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice then rattled the executives at Warner Bros., who were now worried that Suicide Squad would meet with a similar response due to not reflecting the "fun and edgy" feel of the trailers. They hired Trailer Park, the company behind the teaser, to edit an alternate cut of the film. Warner Bros.' more lighthearted cut was screened for test audiences alongside Ayer's Darker and Edgier and more somber cut, which led to the studio deciding to do extensive and costly re-shoots to try and meet a middle ground between the two takes. It's believed that the decision to essentially merge the two conflicting versions of the film is to blame for the movie's Mood Whiplash, among other criticisms such as choppy editing and lack of character development for the titular squad. The Joker/Harley relationship in particular was signifcantly made more sympathetic due to poor reactions from test screenings. Further elaborated on here.
  • What Could Have Been:
  • Word of God: According to David Ayer Captain Boomerang is a brony.
  • You Look Familiar: Only in a technicality, since he is not actually seen either time. Robin Atkin Downes did vocal effects and motion capture for Doomsday in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. In this film he plays one of Deadshot's clients Angelo who he is conversing with over the phone.

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