A new behind the scenes picture from The Suicide Squadfinds Idris Elba goofing off on set. With The Suicide Squad, the DCEU has once again reinvented itself in the wake of a more disappointing release. The original Suicide Squad in 2016 famously failed to win over audiences, so Warner Bros. brought in Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn to revitalize the property. Gunn assembled a new motley crew of bad guys and plunged them straight into a deadly mission on the fictional island of Corto Maltese for The Suicide Squad, which debuted to positive reviews and a muddled box office in early August.
A handful of characters from the 2016 film stayed over for The Suicide Squad, most notably Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman). Beyond them, most of the movie’s Task Force X is comprised of new faces. If anyone in The Suicide Squad is the lead, it just might be Elba’s Bloodsport. A skilled assassin famous for putting Superman in the ICU, Bloodsport reluctantly joins Task Force X after Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) threatens his daughter.
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Monday marked Elba’s birthday, and Gunn made sure to commemorate it with a behind the scenes pic from The Suicide Squad. In it, Elba’s hooked up to wires and perched on piece of broken concrete. Fans will recall this moment from the movie, when Bloodsport hurtles through several floors of a crumbling building while balancing on that one piece of concrete. Though wirework is often uncomfortable, Elba looks perfectly relaxed, even flashing a dopey grin. “Happy Birthday @idriselba you smooth bastard you,” Gunn wrote. You can see the post down below.
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This is far nicer birthday message than the one Elba received from Warner Bros., which initially named his Suicide Squad character Deadshot. Though Deadshot is quite similar to Bloodsport, the two are not the same; Will Smith played the former for the 2016 movie, and Elba has stated he didn’t want to replace him when signing onto the sequel. Elba proved to be an excellent Bloodsport, with his performance being one of the highlights of The Suicide Squad.
The hope for many now is that Elba will get to return as Bloodsport, either in a follow-up to The Suicide Squad or in another DCEU project. Right now, he isn’t officially slated to appear anywhere else, but Gunn has said he has some ideas about additional projects. Based on the BTS peeks fans have been granted, like the above image, Elba had a lot of fun making The Suicide Squad, so he’d probably be willing to sign on for another installment. Only time will tell if that happens.
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Source: James Gunn/Twitter
