James Gunn reveals scrapped plans for original The Suicide Squad ending
"It was just too dark for me"
James Gunn has revealed his original plans for a scrapped ending to The Suicide Squad – an ending in which Ratcatcher 2, played by Daniela Melchior, dies at the hands of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis).
"At the very end of the movie, Ratcatcher 2 had taken the information about [Project Starfish] from Jotunheim. She had smuggled in and gotten away with all of that information from Jotunheim, and the rest of the group didn't know about it. And (Amanda) Waller blew up her head, after they went back to the prison," Gunn told CinemaBlend.
"At which point, Harley tries to talk Bloodsport – Bloodsport’s freaking out, because he's connected to this person, like a daughter. And he's freaking out, and Harley is actually being sort of kind, in a weird way, trying to talk Bloodsport into just letting it go. But Bloodsport ends up shooting Waller in the heart with a combustible bullet and threatening to blow her up. It was sort of complicated, but it was something like that. He didn't shoot her in the heart. He shot her right below the heart with one of the exploding bullets, which we see Peacemaker using earlier in the movie. And so now she has to do what he says."
Gunn's reboot-slash-sequel saw several familiar faces return from 2016's Suicide Squad, including Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney as Boomerang, and Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag. New additions to the team included Idris Elba, John Cena, and Pete Davidson as Bloodsport, Peacemaker, and Blackguard, respectively.
The director added: "It was just too dark for me. It was really just too dark. It didn't really work for me. It didn't really tell the story that I wanted to tell, which is much more about the characters’ different journeys, emotionally. And for me, really, the ending with Bloodsport petting the rat... that, to me, was the perfect ending for the movie."
Gunn's next contribution to the DCEU is The Suicide Squad spin-off series Peacemaker, which arrives on HBO Max on January 13, 2022. In the meantime, make sure you're up to speed and check out our guide to watching DC movies in order.
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I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.