A month after The Suicide Squad premiered in theaters and on HBO Max, director James Gunn shared a new behind-the-scenes photo from the film’s set to mark actor Idris Elba’s birthday. The actor, who portrays the role of Bloodsport in the film, celebrated his 49th birthday on September 6, and Gunn had an appreciation post ready to go.
On his Twitter account, Gunn shared the image of Elba posing on the set of The Suicide Squad, while he is still tied to cables and stands in front of a blue screen. He wears his Bloodsport costume and has a quirky smile on, with the image obviously clicked in between shots that are part of the film’s epic climax. “Happy Birthday @idriselba you smooth bastard you,” wrote Gunn to celebrate the day with Elba.
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The image in Gunn’s post seems to reflect the scene towards the end of the film where Bloodsport and his team of misfits are planting bombs to destroy Jötunheim. When Polka-Dot Man accidentally sets off the explosives, the entire building starts to crumble, and Bloodsport is seen falling down several floors before safely landing in the area where John Cena’s Peacemaker is about to kill Daniela Melchior’s Ratcatcher 2 for discovering the secret about Starro, the giant alien starfish.
At this point, Bloodsport and Peacemaker come face-to-face and the two assassins try to kill each other in a duel of sorts. The scene is brilliantly shot, with the slow-motion effects only adding to the fantastic cinematography in The Suicide Squad. It turns out that Peacemaker was working on secret orders from Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller and was trying to cover up the U.S. government's mess-up related to Starro. A few minutes prior to this scene, he is also seen killing Joel Kinnaman's Rick Flag for the same reason.
This isn’t the first time Gunn has shared an appreciation post for Elba. On his birthday last year, the director had revealed that he had written the role of Bloodsport specifically with Elba in mind. He has been very vocal about how Elba’s performance was beyond his expectations.
Before the film’s official synopsis was released, many fans assumed that Elba would be taking over the role of Deadshot from David Ayer’s 2016 film Suicide Squad. However, Gunn made sure that everybody knew the role was created for Elba before he had even met the actor.
The Suicide Squad is showing at theaters.
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Source: James Gunn/Twitter
