The Suicide Squad Movie Theory That Could Change Everything

Thanks to last weekend's DC FanDome event, our first look at The Suicide Squad has landed, complete with all the sound bite trimmings: "It's going to surprise people." "It's going to be different from any superhero movie ever made." "This one is completely unique." What would normally come off as boilerplate "get pumped" rhetoric has all the makings of real talk — writer-director James Gunn, already a superhero auteur in his own right, took the gig while Marvel was shuffling its feet about his third Guardians of the Galaxy outing, trying to figure out exactly how fired he needed to stay after a series of off-color tweets from his past were dug up. Going through that kind of grief, even with the overall dignity exhibited by Gunn, can lead to the creation of some Drax-worthy berserker rage artistic expression.

Now, a fan theory that's been making the rounds might just have given us a look at what that could look like. The premise, posted to Reddit's /r/SuicideSquad forum, goes something like this: there's not just one Task Force X team featured in the film, but two. One might be composed of Harley Quinn, King Shark, Bloodsport, Ratcatcher, Polka Dot Man, and Rick Flagg, while the other team would be filled out with TDK, Mongal, and the rest of the crew featured in the trailer. The second team would, according to fan speculation, get good and blown up while out on a mission, bringing the sneak peek's promise that "everyone is exploding: genitals, heads, arms, legs" into the hearts and puke bags of audiences everywhere.

Nothing much seems outside of the realm of possibility for the filmmaker who brought us a living planet played by Kurt Russell transforming into David Hasselhoff in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but killing off an entire bevy of superfolk? It's certainly extreme, but there's evidence to support it, if you know where to look. The first hint might be Suicide Squad alum Joel Kinnaman, returning in the role of Rick Flag, and his dead-eyed advice to fans: "Don't get too attached." For more, let's take a deep dive down the nerd rabbit hole.

On August 9th, 2020, James Gunn took a swing at the #My5XMen hashtag floating around Twitter, a straightforward nugget of virality challenging comic book fans to create their own five-person team of X-Men characters. Gunn's response: "Does Doop count? (...) If Doop doesn't count I'm not sure I want to play this game." An innocuous shout out to a cult favorite background character? Or something else?

Doop, now a mainstay of on-panel comic book Easter eggs, is a gibberish-talking bean person who floats through the air, tossing in zany asides for readers to translate in their free time. While he calls the Marvel Universe his home and native land, he originated in X-Force No. 116, a story that introduced a new team of hyper violent celebrity mutants to readers... then promptly killed them as violently as possible. Gunn even tagged Doop co-creator Mike Allred in his tweet. Could his obvious affection for Doop have led to the filmmaker borrowing elements from the playful blob's introduction? We'll just have to wait for Suicide Squad's August 21, 2021 release date to find out.