Is This The Suicide Squad's Secret Villain?

James Gunn's The Suicide Squad might feature a Big Bad who is... well, pretty big.

Rumor-slinging website We Got This Covered is reporting that their oh-so anonymous sources tell them that the main villain of the upcoming soft reboot will be none other than Vandal Savage, an iconic DC villain who could prove bad enough to take on an entire squad of baddies.

The gang being assembled for The Suicide Squad is an interesting mix of the familiar with the new. Margot Robbie will be reprising her role as Harley Quinn (who, of course, will next be seen in February's Birds of Prey), arguably the star of the show the first time around; also returning are Viola Davis as the Nick Fury-esque Amanda Waller, Joel Kinnaman as team leader Rick Flag, and Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang. New to the proceedings this time around are David Dastmalchian (Ant-Man and the Wasp) as Polka-Dot Man, Daniela Melchior as a gender-flipped version of the criminal known as Ratcatcher, and Steve Agee (Brightburn) as the voice of King Shark.

A slew of famous names have also been cast in undisclosed roles, although John Cena (Playing with Fire) is widely believed to be taking on the role of Peacemaker, a vigilante so stridently committed to the cause of peace that he will paradoxically straight-up murder you if you aren't. Also among the cast are Idris Elba (Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw), Storm Reid (A Wrinkle in Time), Nathan Fillion (Firefly), Michael Rooker (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2), Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who), and Taika Waititi (The Mandalorian).

According to the flick's rumored plot, it centers on two mysterious and vaguely-monikered figures, which is how the rumor of Vandal Savage's involvement comes into play. The movie will supposedly see Waller sending the Suicide Squad in to deal with some kind of alien beast which has been held captive in a secret prison built by the Nazis during the Second World War. This monster is now under the sway of two villains, referred to in the synopsis only as "the Mayor" and "the General."

These rather official-sounding names may indeed hint at Savage, as in the pages of DC comics, the villain has played a part in world events throughout all of history. Savage came into the world as an actual caveman, but was granted a powerful intellect and immortality by a mysterious, radioactive meteor which fell to Earth in his vicinity. He's basically been playing the governments and societies of the world like a fiddle for roughly 50,000 years; he may have actually been such notorious historical figures as Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, and Jack the Ripper, and he's been revered as a god and exalted as a ruler by many civilizations throughout history. How's that for a Big Bad?

Now, it must be said that this rumor should be taken with about six pounds of salt. We Got This Covered is not the most reliable source of inside info; while the site has fielded accurate rumor reports in the past, it has also fielded more than its fair of share of complete bunk. 

It should also be pointed out that that plot synopsis has in no way been confirmed, and that Gunn himself has said that a good deal of the rumors floating about concerning The Suicide Squad are untrue. (Of course, it's not like we would expect him to verify any of them if they were true.) There have also been a good number of other baddies rumored for the film; other "inside sources" have asserted, for example, that Capaldi will be portraying frequent Teen Titans antagonist Psimon, and still others have breathlessly "confirmed" that the alien monster mentioned in that synopsis will be none other than J'Onn J'Onnz, AKA Martian Manhunter.

Untill Gunn decides to give us some inside info or we get a trailer, though, all of this should be taken as pure speculation. The truth is, nobody outside of the production yet knows who The Suicide Squad's main antagonist will be — well, almost nobody.

Speaking on his Fatman Beyond podcast last June, filmmaker and quintessential comic book geek Kevin Smith revealed that he is, in fact, privy to that information. Smith asked his audience if they had heard the news, and when nobody responded in the affirmative, he said, "Alright, I do, and I just can't say it then. Because I thought everybody knew and I was about to say... I might have heard that privately."

Wow, if just one audience member had piped up to falsely claim that it was common knowledge, they might have gotten Smith to spill the beans. Alas, that didn't happen — but what Smith did have to say was pretty darn encouraging.

"I'm not gonna spill it, but if it is what I heard, it is f***ing phenomenal," he teased. "And boy, is it in the right hands with James Gunn." (via ComicBook)

Well, that's... just great, we think. We certainly have no trouble believing that the entirety of The Suicide Squad is in the right hands with Mr. Gunn, and we can't wait to see what he and that enormous cast have in store for us when the flick hits the big screen on August 6, 2021.