‘The Suicide Squad’ gender swaps role, sparks fan debate
The Suicide Squad has reportedly found its first new actress. While the film has announced returning actors Margot Robbie as the iconic Harley Quinn and Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, the film has just revealed that Portuguese soap opera actress Daniela Melchior will play the all-new character, Ratcatcher.
Additionally, according to ComicBook.com, the film is also rumored to include David Dastmalchian as Polka Dot Man, John Cena as Peacemaker, and Idris Elba in an unspecified role.
Read more: Riff Raff reveals “first real movie” role is in ‘Sonic The Hedgehog’
As previously reported, it was revealed that Elba would not take over the role of Deadshot. While Will Smith decided to not reprise his role, director James Gunn and co. opted to leave the door open in case he ever wanted to come back for potential future installments.
However, according to Variety, Melchior’s character will in some way be tied to Elba’s new role.
Additionally, the character’s original gender in the comics is male. However, Gunn and his team have seemingly flipped the switch on one of Batman’s famous enemies.
Now, fans have a few things to say about the gender swap and character as a whole. While some seem stoked about the possibility of new female characters, others don’t seem to keen the film’s intentions.
Me 3 years ago: I can’t wait for characters like Killer Frost and Bronze Tiger in Suicide Squad 2
James Gunn: Heres the Polka Dot man and a genderswapped Ratcatcher
— A Pimp Named Darkseid (@ApokolipsPimp) May 1, 2019
The fact that ‘Ratcatcher’ will get in the DCEU before Catwoman, Ivy, Hawkgirl, Batgirl, Vixen, Zatanna, etc tells you exactly everything you need to know about what is wrong with the DCEU
— Chloe (@fayettevamp) May 1, 2019
Oh yeah. People are always gonna complain and you can’t please everyone.
But I get that, in a way, it isn’t okay to change some characters just because they are obscure. There’s always a line. In this case, changing Ratcatcher into a woman is great, to have more female characters— Dee Cee (@DeeCeeGrayson) May 1, 2019
Out of all the female villain characters that have been apart of the squad like killer frost or black orchid, James Gunn chooses to genderbend the ratcatcher pic.twitter.com/vd4HpgXElC
— A Pimp Named Darkseid (@ApokolipsPimp) April 29, 2019
Read more: Kevin Lyman shares look at Atlantic City Warped setup
According to IMDb, Melchior is a relative newcomer in the face of franchise productions. However, the actress has played in various foreign films and TV series such as Parque Mayer and Valor da Vida.
As previously reported, it looks like Gunn’s version of Suicide Squad will serve as a “total reboot.”
“First of all, we don’t call it Suicide Squad 2 ‘cause it’s a total reboot, so it’s The Suicide Squad and I think people should be extremely excited about it,” producer Peter Safran says. “It’s everything you would hope from a James Gunn script and I think that says a lot and that promises a lot and I know that we will deliver a lot.”
Gunn is reportedly still on the lookout to fill the rest of the cast. However, The Suicide Squad is set to start production this fall, with a slated release of Aug. 6, 2021.
What do you think of the cast additions for The Suicide Squad? Let us know in the comments below.
See more: The 10 most metal cartoon characters
[envira-gallery id=”194728″]
