No jokes. It was a mandate we had heard about the developing DC Cinematic Universe, and it’s one that flies in stark contrast (get it?) to the lighter movies of Marvel. Yet, David Ayer’s Suicide Squad is going to have a Joker (in Jared Leto), and the maniacal Harley Quinn (in Margot Robbie). It has to be humorous. Right?
Maybe not. Knowing that it’s very early in the process, Margot Robbie spoke with MTV about the upcoming super-villain movie, and what fans can expect. She was asked specifically about the tone of the material, as that can go a long way toward preparing an audience for the end result. Specifically, Robbie was asked if Suicide Squad would resemble Christopher Nolan’s somber, serious Batman trilogy, or Joss Whedon’s The Avengers. She explained that Squad likely will borrow its tone from Nolan, saying:
I think on a scale of like, Dark Knight is here and Avengers is here, I think it’s more on the Dark Knight side of things.
If that’s the case, I’m a little bit sad (no pun intended). With Zack Snyder at the helm of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, we are expecting that battle of the titans to be a serious, borderline grim affair. Heck, the first footage that Snyder brought to Comic-Con was set in a rainstorm, in the dead of night. Moody. Gloomy. Which is TOTALLY fine. If that’s what Snyder wants to do with his Man of Steel follow up, more power to him.
But I was hoping that Suicide Squad would be the balance to that, the free-spirited, still maniacal caper film that shined a focus on truly unpredictable lunatics. At the same time, David Ayer doesn’t make funny movies, as anyone who saw Fury or End of Watch knows. He appreciates gritty realism, and humor usually springs out of tension in his films. I guess this was to be expected.
Listen to Margot Robbie’s comments on Suicide Squad in complete context here:
There are a lot of interesting factoids in that interview. Robbie admits that Harley Quinn and Deadshot will have a lot of scenes together, and the studio hired her knowing that she had good chemistry with Will Smith already (as witnessed in Focus, in theaters now). She says she didn’t even have to audition, so let’s hope she has a great, built-in Harley interpretation. And she says that she has since talked to Jared Leto and David Ayer about what Leto is planning to do as The Joker. We will finally see the end result when Suicide Squad opens everywhere on August 5, 2016.
