When the Saturday Comic-Con schedule first came out in late June, the official description for Warner Bros.' Hall H panel was this: "A 'sneak peek' at a few upcoming releases." While that certainly wasn't much to go on, most fans expected that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice would surely be part of the festivities, and just a few days later that superhero adventure was confirmed, along with a pair of 2015 releases, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (August 14) and Pan (October 7). Some fans were surprised that Suicide Squad wasn't on the agenda, but others weren't since production is still happening in Toronto. Keeping the tradition of Comic-Con's unannounced surprises alive, Suicide Squad director David Ayer took the stage, delivering a rousing speech that had the fans cheering, while joking about starting an "East Coast/West Coast" feud with Marvel. Here's what the filmmaker had to say below, revealing that he wanted to show up at Hall H because that particular crowd, "runs this s--t."
"We were shooting last night in Toronto but we had to come down to report in to Hall H because you guys run this s-t! We're making this movie for you, right here. It's all about canon, it's all about being faithful to the source material. You guys know who you are, and know what you want, and you're going to get it with this show. All this good vs. evil s--t is kind of played out. It's time for bad vs. evil. It's time for a movie about bad guys! Who's got the best bad guys out there? DC Comics, the best villains. Now, I'm not trying to start a East Coast-West Coast feud with Marvel Comics, but someone has to say the truth."
The filmmaker then revealed that he had "a little footage" he wanted to show the audience, debuting a wonderful Suicide Squad trailer that is even more impressive when you take into consideration that the effects aren't completely finished, since production has only been under way for less than three months. I know, it seems a lot longer than that, with the slew of set photos and videos we've posted within that time, where we saw The Joker (Jared Leto) slapping Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) around and driving his ultra-flashy sports car around the streets of Toronto, sometimes with Batman (Ben Affleck) hanging on to the roof of his exotic whip. Aside from that, and a few other exterior scenes where the group is seen walking together, there isn't much else we've seen from this superhero movie, but thanks to some wonderful editing and a cleverly-remixed song, the Suicide Squad trailer played incredibly well in Hall H.
The video tease why Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) wants to put this team of baddies together, along with showcasing the villains themselves. Deadshot (Will Smith) is seen hitting a punching bag, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) is doing some sort of suspended aerobics, El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) is seen holding a lit match very close to his fingers, Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) gets wheeled in on a standing gurney, just like Hannibal Lecter, and we also get an intriguing look at Enchantress (Cara Delevingne) before she gets her powers. Oh, I almost forgot, we also get our first real look at The Joker (Jared Leto).
David Ayer then brought out the entire cast, Karen Fukuhara (Katana), Adam Beach (Slipknot), Cara Delevingne (Enchantress), Jay Hernandez (El Diablo), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Killer Croc), Jai Courtney, Joel Kinnaman (Rick Flagg), Viola Davis (Amanda Waller), Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn) and Will Smith (Deadshot), with Jared Leto as the only notable absentee, but, unfortunately, the cast and their filmmaker couldn't stick around for a Q&A session. Still, the enthusiasm that fans saw from the cast speaks just as highly about the film they're making than the footage itself, with Will Smith stating that the movie is "absolutely fantastic" before the cast and crew left the stage. Thankfully, Warner Bros. released the official trailer today for all to see, so we're breaking down the footage as best we can to see what unique details we can cull from this footage.
5 Opening Dinner Scene
The trailer opens with Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) having a steak dinner with two men who appear to be high-ranking military officials, just based on their appearance. The scene shows Waller explaining that she wants to "assemble a task force of the most dangerous people on the planet who I think can do some good." When one of these confused officials wonders why she's using "bad guys," she retorts by saying that, if anything goes wrong, they can blame the baddies, since they have "built-in deniability." Who are these men? We have no clue. Unfortunately, we don't get any insight into why, exactly, this squad was assembled, and what their main objective is. Waller also mentions that "it took some time" to assemble this squad, so it's possible that some of these criminals could have been rotting away in this private jail of hers for much longer than others, but we don't know which villain Waller apprehended first. There has also been a rumor circulating that this jail has a "special area" in the basement, reserved specifically for characters with superhuman abilities, like Enchantress and Killer Croc, but we haven't seen any evidence of a secret part of the jail. As of now, all we know is that Amanda Waller has brought all of these baddies together, and plans on using them to do her dirty work for her. What, exactly, that dirty work is, we don't know, but hopefully we find out when the next trailer hits.
4 Suicide Squad's Batman v Superman Connection
In the aforementioned dinner scene, Waller makes a cryptic comment about Superman, wondering about his arrival on Earth in Man of Steel, stating, "maybe Superman was some sort of beacon for them to creep back from the shadows." The mention of a "beacon" is particularly interesting, because it was a Kryptonian beacon that Superman set off that brought the villainous General Zod (Michael Shannon) to Earth in 2013's Man of Steel, and there is also a rumor that this beacon was also heard by Brainiac, who will reportedly be the main villain in Justice League Part 1 and Justice League Part 2. Naturally, those rumors were never confirmed, but the fact that Waller mentioned this beacon is quite noteworthy indeed.
The Suicide Squad trailer also features a brief glimpse at a scenes we have partially seen in set videos, where Batman (Ben Affleck) is holding onto the top of The Joker's car, with Harley Quinn adding, "I hope you have insurance." Apparently there is no ObamaCare in the DCU, but, healthcare quips aside, it seems that Batman's vendetta against The Joker will be set up in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer shown at Comic-Con featured two subtle references to The Joker, one where the villain scrawled "You let your family die!" on a newspaper featuring the destruction of Wayne Tower, and another where Bruce walks past Robin's suit, which has "HaHaHa, Joke's On You Batman" spray-painted on it. There has been speculation that The Joker killed Robin several years ago, and these scenes seem to confirm the rumors, and set up The Dark Knight's presence in Suicide Squad. There are also rumors that Batman shows up at the very end of Suicide Squad, during a prison riot, where he finally gets to confront the Joker face-to-face.
3 Enchantress: Before and After
One of the few cast members in Suicide Squad who we haven't seen much of in set photos and videos is Cara Delevingne, who plays Enchantress. Much to our surprise, this mysterious character is featured a few times in this trailer, and it seems that we even see part of her "origin story," since one of the shots features the actress exploring some sort of cave, while, in voice over, Amanda Waller is talking about some of her Squad (or, as David Ayer would say, "Skwad") members who have supernatural powers. We later see Enchantress in a much different form, with a drastically different appearance, but, unfortunately, we don't get to see any of these powers manifest quite yet.
There have been rumors that it is Enchantress herself who becomes the focal point of the Squad's first mission, since they have to retrieve her from Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg), who gets her from a group of arms dealers, a deal that the Suicide Squad is supposed to break up, according to rumor. The character is said to be incredibly powerful, and she also has a big part in the prison riot at the end of the movie, but that hasn't been confirmed either.
2 Suicide Squad's Superhuman Powers
Most of the Skwad doesn't have any superhuman powers. Deadshot is just a really good shot, The Joker and Harley Quinn are just, well, insane, and Rick Flagg has no special abilities that are not of this Earth. There are others, though, that do have said powers, such as El Diablo, who is seen holding a lit match to his fingers. In the comics, he has the ability to manipulate and control fire, but we've seen very little of him so far, and it isn't known if his powers will manifest in the comics. Along with Enchantress, whose powers have only been teased not seen, we have the monstrous Killer Croc, who has a unique skin condition and incredible strength, along with Captain Boomerang's weapons, blades of conjured energy. It seems like there will be a nice mix between other-worldly powers and good old-fashioned human abilities in this superhero movie, both of which we'll hopefully see more of in the next trailer, whenever that will debut.
1 The Joker and The Bee Gees
Naturally, the most talked aspect of this trailer will be our first look at Jared Leto in action as The Joker. From just the two brief scenes we get at the end of the trailer, it looks like a fantastic performance, but we'll certainly have to hold full judgment until we see the finished film. Still, his maniacal look is quite compelling, and you can expect a slew of think pieces in the coming weeks, comparing those scenes to Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning portrayal of The Joker from 2008's The Dark Knight. The scenes we see feature the villain preparing to torture an unseen victim, telling him or her that he isn't going to kill him/her, he's "just gonna hurt you, really, really bad." At first glance, it didn't appear that all of his tattoos shown in the first official photo from April were present, but in just the shots we see, it seems they are all there after all.
There is a new trend popping up in movie trailers over the past few months, which is re-imagining a popular song and giving it somewhat of a gospel choir sound. San Andreas reworked The Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreaming" in an unusual way for their trailer, and Heroes Reborn used a much different version of Metallica's power ballad "Nothing Else Matters" for their trailer. You may also recall a remixed version of Radiohead's "Creep" in the trailer for The Social Network. Suicide Squad follows this trend by doing a different version of The Bee Gees' "I Started a Joke," which plays perfectly over The Joker's scenes.
That wraps it up for our Suicide Squad breakdown of everything we learned at Comic-Con. Are you more or less excited for this superhero adventure after watching the trailer and breaking down the footage? Let us know what you think in the comments, or reach out on Twitter @GallagherMW.