James Gunn, director of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise and the upcoming The Suicide Squad, recently celebrated his birthday. When it comes to the business of making movies, there is truly no rest for the wicked, as Gunn had to head to his production offices to continue pre-production on his DC Comics adaptation. Fortunately, his crew didn't let the occasion go by unnoticed, as they baked him a pretty amazing, on-brand cake, featuring King Shark.

For those who may not be familiar, King Shark is a character in the pages of DC Comics who is sort of a shark/human hybrid. The character will be joining the team in the forthcoming sequel/reboot, with the indication being that frequent James Gunn collaborator Michael Rooker is set to bring the character to life. Taking to Instagram, Gunn revealed a pretty amazing cake that features King Shark as though he were on a comic book cover, wishing the filmmaker a happy birthday. Gunn had this to say about it.

"Came into #TheSuicideSquad production offices this morning to a surprise birthday greeting with goats, donkeys, sheep, and camels and these awesome #KingShark cakes. I have the greatest team in the world!!"

Honestly, silly as it may seem, this is one of the only updates of any kind we've had regarding The Suicide Squad from anyone directly involved with the movie, in some time. James Gunn was away from social media for months following a scandal centered on a series of old, offensive tweets that saw the director fired as director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, only to later be rehired. During that time off, Gunn landed the gig directing Suicide Squad 2, which evolved into more of a soft reboot.

Extracting what we can, aside from the interesting party that must have been held, James Gunn and the team are hard at work on pre-production at this point. We've heard multiple reports that the goal is to have cameras rolling before the end of the year, so that tracks. As far as casting goes, Idris Elba is on board in an unspecified role. He was originally brought in to replace Will Smith as Deadshot, but now he's going to play a new character instead.

Storm Reid will play his daughter. Returning cast members include Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. The new members of the group include David Dastmalchian (Ant-Man and the Wasp) as Polka Dot Man, Daniela Melchior (The Black Book) as Ratcatcher and John Cena (Blockers) as Peacemaker.

As far as plot details go? That's being kept under tight lock and key for the time being. Hopefully, we'll learn a bit more once cameras start to roll. The Suicide Squad is set to arrive in theaters on August 6, 2021. Be sure to check out the King Shark cake from James Gunn's Instagram below.