Although Warner Bros isn’t as focused on interconnectivity between all its DC movies as it once was, the DC Extended Universe continuity isn’t going anywhere. As such, the claims that The Suicide Squad will be a total reboot have been greatly exaggerated, and it will indeed serve as a sequel to 2016’s Suicide Squad. That said, it’s been made abundantly clear over the last couple of months that under writer/director James Gunn’s supervision, The Suicide Squad is more of a relaunch than a direct follow-up, and will feature a lot of new characters. It makes sense to have a mostly new cast if you’re wanting to distance an adventure from its predecessor, though The Suicide Squad would still be wise to bring back Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller to round out its collection of familiar faces.
Thus far, only three characters from the last Suicide Squad movie are confirmed to be returning from the sequel, and one of them isn’t even being reprised by the same actor. Idris Elba is taking over Deadshot duties from Will Smith due to the Aladdin star having scheduling issues, and Margot Robbie and Jai Courtney will reprise Harley Quinn and Captain Boomerang, respectively. It makes sense why these three are being brought back for The Suicide Squad, as Deadshot and Captain Boomerang have on the team since it was revitalized in the late 1980s by writer John Ostrander, and Harley Quinn has been one of the most prominent members ever since The New 52 reboot in 2011.
From there, it’s easy enough to look at the various Suicide Squad iterations over the decades and find other members to fill out the ranks, from villains like Count Vertigo and Blockbuster to heroes like Vixen and Oracle. You can even find a solider to fill in for Rick Flag and make sure the Squad doesn’t get out of hand during field missions. But when it comes to actually putting the officially-named Task Force X together and supervising them from off-site as they carry out their objective, there’s no one better for the job than Amanda Waller.
Just like Deadshot and Captain Boomerang, Amanda Waller has been a part of the modern Suicide Squad mythos (not to be confused with the Silver Age Suicide Squad, which was a team of adventurers that only appeared in six issues of The Brave and the Bold) since the beginning. She may not have superpowers or a colorful costume, but make no mistake, Amanda is one of the most formidable and dangerous individuals in the DC universe. She’ll use intimidation, manipulation, blackmail and whatever other tools are at her disposal to ensure that her goals are carried out, which are usually on behalf of national security. The ends always justify the means in her book, even if it results in casualties. It’s no wonder then why she’s the person who’s putting a group of criminals together to carry out covert black ops missions for the U.S. government. She doesn’t care how many of them die in order to complete the mission and she won’t hesitate to detonate the nano-bombs in their necks.
Although Angela Basset first brought Amanda Waller to life on the big screen in Green Lantern, it wasn’t until Viola Davis played the character five years later that we saw her connected to the Suicide Squad. The Suicide Squad movie certainly wasn’t a critical hit, but Davis was one of its few highlights, nailing her blunt and sinister personality excellently, arguably demonstrated best when she shot those FBI agents without batting an eye (as seen below). The DC Comics universe vast, and looking at just the Suicide Squad corner of it, it’d be easy enough to find someone to replace fill Amanda’s role as the government figure feeding the team orders. But if The Suicide Squad is willing to bring back three lead characters from the last movie who are figureheads for the property as a whole, then Amanda needs to be included in that small group.
I understand James Gunn wanting to fill out these this new Suicide Squad team with mostly new faces. It helps with wiping the slate clean and mostly separating this Suicide Squad movie from its predecessor, not to mention that possibility all of these new characters could be killed off during the course of the story. After all, while there are various characters who have repeatedly served on [Task Force X](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/TaskForceX(NewEarth) in the comics, there’s been no shortage of recruits who have died after just one or a couple missions. Behind the scenes, though, Amanda Waller has almost always been the woman in charge, and narratively speaking, there’s no reason to change that. Even if this were a total reboot filled with all new actors, I’d still advocate for Amanda to appear. A Suicide Squad without her would be like a Batman movie without Alfred or a Superman movie without Lois Lane.
Since Suicide Squad’s release, Viola Davis’ filmography has grown with Fences and Widows, both of which received positive critical reception. She’s also still leading the ABC series How to Get Away with Murder. It’s possible that her shooting schedule for the TV show might prevent her from appearing in The Suicide Squad, as production is reportedly beginning this fall. If that’s the case, while it’d be disappointing not to have Davis around, the backup plan would be to recast the character, as has been done with Deadshot. That’s how important Amanda is to the Suicide Squad. It’s not absolutely crucial for Rick Flag, Katana, Killer Croc or even a resurrected Diablo to return for The Suicide Squad, but without Amanda alongside Deadshot, Harley Quinn and Captain Boomerang, it feels like there’s a piece of the puzzle missing. Davis getting to play the character once more would be the icing on the cake, so hopefully an arrangement can be worked out.
The Suicide Squad charges into theaters on August 6, 2021, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates on how it’s coming along. Don’t forget to look through our DC movies guide to learn what else is in development for the DCEU.
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