In news that should surprise absolutely no one, Shia LaBeouf revealed in a recent interview that he was turned away from a role in DC’s Suicide Squad for being “crazy”. Perhaps more interesting is the revelation that the role LaBeouf was originally up for –a soldier part that eventually went to actor Scott Eastwood – was intended to be more important, before Will Smith came aboard to play Deadshot.
In Suicide Squad, Eastwood played an original character named Lieutenant GQ Edwards, a soldier who worked directly underneath Joel Kinnaman’s Colonel Rick Flag. While Edwards’s actual presence in the film was so small as to be nearly inconsequential, speculation leading up to the film had pegged Eastwood’s Edwards as a much bigger character. It was suggested that Edwards was anyone from Green Arrow to secretly being Dick Grayson, aka Nightwing. Those rumors turned out to be untrue, and Edwards ended up dying at the film’s final battle. However, if LaBeouf is to be believed, than perhaps those original rumors weren’t completely baseless.
“That character was different initially,” LaBeouf told Variety. “That character and Tom [originally cast as Rick Flag] character got written down to build Will [Smith] up.” Rick Flag maintained a key role in the plot as the love interest to the film’s villain Enchantress played by Cara Delevingne, but Eastwood’s presence was substantially downsized, apparently.
Scott Easwood (right) as Lt. GQ Edwards in 'Suicide Squad'
While the true scope of GQ Edwards’s character might never be revealed, Suicide Squad underwent many changes leading up to its premiere. For all anyone knows, Edwards really could have been an important figure in the DC Extended Universe. Unfortunately for viewers, Edwards was relegated to an expendable soldier, and LaBeouf too crazy to play a role in a film about villainous psychopaths.
