After decades in the industry, Sylvester Stallone is still one of the busiest stars in Hollywood. The 74-year-old actor just wrapped on his new superhero movie, Samaritan, and is also working on a director’s cut of Rocky IV, which he’s been hyping up for a while. Now, the actor is poised to enter another superhero film in the form of James Gunn’ The Suicide Squad, and he announced the news in a sweet post.
Sylvester Stallone posted a video to his Instagram account in which he confirmed that he has preparing to film his role for The Suicide Squad. The clip has since been deleted, but the actor re-posted the news in a different post, in which he praised James Gunn and his team:
Working with this incredible Director on this astounding project has made this an amazing year. I am a very lucky man to be surrounded by such talent.!
James Gunn also took to Instagram to confirm the news of Stallone’s casting and showered praise on the veteran actor. The two previously worked together on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Gunn favorably compared his work on Squad to their past collaboration:
Always love working with my friend @officialslystallone & our work today on The Suicide Squad was no exception. Despite Sly being an iconic movie star, most people still don’t have any idea what an amazing actor this guy is.
In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Sylvester Stallone played the role of Stakar Ogord a.k.a. Starhawk, a Ravager and estranged comrade of Michael Rooker’s Yondu. The film established that the two were on the outs after Yondu broke the Ravagers’ trafficking code. However, when Yondu sacrifices himself to save the Guardians, Stakar and his fellow Ravagers arrive to pay tribute to their fallen friend.
Stallone’s role in Guardians Vol. 2 may not have been large, but it did prove to be one of the more touching aspects of the film. Given that the actor is now just doing work on The Suicide Squad, which wrapped a while ago, it’s likely that his role isn’t too big. Still, James Gunn has found ways to work actors into films and give them brief, yet memorable, roles. Nathan Fillion’s quick voiceover cameo on Guardians of the Galaxy is a prime example of that.
James Gunn is a bit of a wild card when it comes to his superhero casting, but there’s a chance Sylvester Stallone could be playing a character from the comics. Though it’ll probably be a deep cut like Starhawk was. Gunn could reach back decades to pull a character for Stallone and, ahead of his appearance, it’ll be fun to speculate about his role.
The Suicide Squad is set to hit theaters on August 6, 2021.
