Things The Suicide Squad Trailer Revealed

The second Suicide Squad trailer has premiered, and it's revealed a new, unexpected side to the anticipated anti-heroic film. The premise: a bunch of especially bad criminals with various powers are assembled under the guidance of Amanda Waller, a morally ambiguous government official who sees them as disposable. Their mission is to take down extremely dangerous threats to humanity, and if they survive, they're given a clean criminal record and freedom. What could possibly go wrong? This new trailer gives us some very interesting details.

Suicide Squad's first trailer was deeply moody and grim, portraying a collection of angry and insane characters who all seemed doomed to die in a bleak world where the sun didn't exist and everyone just shot at one another constantly. This second trailer let the characters speak for themselves, and it sounds like it'll be a movie full of quips and jokes, despite the whole "suicide" thing in the title. And honestly, a bunch of clinically insane people acting weird instead of angry and violent for two hours sounds like a much more interesting film.

No one's going to go see Suicide Squad because they're a really big Deadshot fan. No, everyone will be going to see the twisted on-screen romance between Harley Quinn and the Joker. In this trailer, the Joker can be seen cradling a bleached-out Harleen in a vat of Joker-making chemicals, presumably after taking an intentional dive into the chemicals himself. According to DC's revised New 52 history, this is pretty much how the insane joker created Harley Quinn. It looks like a bit of an origin scene, so we might get to see the complete evolution of Harley. Add this to the Joker's changing tattoos, implying that we may get a flashback or two, and we might just get the full picture.

This trailer is the first time we're hearing a lot of Harley Quinn's voice, and it's nothing like the vocal performance from Arleen Sorkin in Batman: The Animated Series, where the character originated. Cartoon Harley's voice has always been a signature of her character, so fans are a bit up in arms about Margot Robbie's interpretation of the character's tone, which sounds more Clueless than villainous. We'll know after the premiere if Robbie really makes the character her own, or if fanboys have been drawing hundreds of creepy pictures for nothing.

One of fans' biggest concerns has been Jared Leto's version of the Joker. Not only is Leto a beautiful doll of a man, but comparisons to Heath Ledger's legendary take on the Joker are inevitable. This is really the first time we've heard Joker speak for a considerable amount of time, and this trailer truly makes it sound like this is Leto's homage to Ledger. The raspy hiss that Leto uses for this Insane Clown Posse version of the Clown Prince of Crime sounds very familiar, and that's not a bad thing at all.

We know that the Joker isn't part of the Squad, but that he might just be manipulating it from the outside. What we now know from this trailer is that he's not just some crazy random dude off the street who decided to dress like a Hot Topic reject; this guy has real estate, an entire armory at his disposal, and some fancy clothes. Fans will notice homages to different Jokers throughout the years, from the traditional purple jacket of comic book and 1989 film fame, as well as a classy black and white ensemble made famous by artist Alex Ross. Expect many more comic references along the way, as well as some wonderful toys.

Both Marvel and DC have been very hesitant to introduce magical elements into their carefully-constructed worlds, because magic comes with rules, and those rules are often inconsistent and result in gaping plot holes. However, with the character Enchantress being genuinely magic, and Katana's soul-stealing sword doing magical soul-stealing stuff, we now officially have a magical world—and magic has traditionally been one of Superman's big weaknesses. What this means for the larger scheme of things is undecided, but Suicide Squad is now part of the big DC picture, so it'll be interesting to watch if it all plays out consistently (or not).

There's nothing cool about a guy who can throw boomerangs, unless maybe you're hanging out in the quad at your state college, and with this new trailer, everyone seems to finally acknowledge that point. Fans are hailing this as Jai Courtney's breakout role, though we haven't seen him do much more than pop a beer and punch a guy, and he's not even important enough to list in Rick Flagg's rundown of the team's roster. Then again, a guy who throws stuff probably isn't nearly as interesting as the guy who eats people, and even less interesting than a guy who shoots people. Boomerang, known for his sneakiness and occasional cowardice, is probably the guy to keep an eye on.

Something pretty bad is going on in the subway system, and we only get a glimpse of it, but it has some pretty wicked tendrils, and it can cut right through a train like it's a hot dog. We don't know if this opposing force is a new villain, or one from the history of comics, but it certainly doesn't seem canonical to the Suicide Squad's first appearance: there, they assemble to stop a guy named Brimstone, who happens to be made of fire and comes from Darkseid's Apokolips. Could the metal tendrils belong to Brainiac? Metallo? Shade, the Changing Man? At least they didn't blow the reveal in the trailer like Batman v. Superman did.