Entertainment

What to Expect from Will Smith's Deadshot in 'Suicide Squad' 

A primer on Will Smith's assassin character for the supervillain blockbuster. 

Suicide Squad, this summer’s big blockbuster, has enough characters for its own hockey team. For non-comic connoisseurs who just want to see a superhero movie that’s actually fun — unlike the convoluted and dour Batman v Superman — its roster can seem overwhelming. Luckily, we’re here to help you out with tutorials on the major players. First we explained what you can expect from [Cara Delevigne’s Enchantress]((https://www.inverse.com/article/17801-enchantress-suicide-squad-dcu-villain-cara-delevingne), now we’re diving into Will Smith’s Deadshot

Deadshot is, as his name suggests, a deadly and highly skilled marksman. He first appeared on the page in Batman #59 in 1950. He is played by Will Smith, so you know he will be smooth and cool and full of one-liners. The trailer backs this up.

He will also be involved in a weird love triangle with Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and Jared Leto’s Joker. “Harley is the biggest troublemaker, but Deadshot’s actually eyeballing her a little bit,” Smith told Empire. “There’s a pretty ragged romantic triangle there.”

He then proceeded to describe how Harley Quinn “is tall but only with the help of certain shoes. She can be sexy and composed even while naked but only in character.” Oh wait, that wasn’t a comic book villain who said that.

Deadshot isn’t suicidal, but he also has no regard for his own life and wants to die in a spectacular fashion. Spoiler alert, he probably won’t, as there is sequel buzz starring Will Smith on the horizon. But nonetheless, expect that to inform his behavior. If the film follows the comics, expect him to have particularly contentious relationships with Jae Cortney’s surprisingly fun looking Captain Boomerang and Joel Kinnaman’s mysterious Rick Flagg.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Deadshot is “an assassin-for-hire by day, a concerned dad by night, [and] is one conflicted baddie who enjoys the hunt but is still trying to do right by his young daughter.”

That draws from a particular comic storyline that ends in him faking his own death. All bets are off as to whether that will happen in this movie. Bring on 2 Suicide 2 Squad.

Related Tags