The Suicide Squad

Unfiltered, uncensored, uncompromising trailer reactions from team EMPIRE

James Dyer (Digital Editor-in-chief ):

I need someone to explain to me what this is. Is it a reboot or a sequel? It has the same people. It’s confusing.

Chris Hewitt (Re.view Editor): It’s a sequel.

James: Oh. Well, that makes sense.

Chris Hewitt: That was quick!

James: So it takes place after the first film?

John Nugent (News Editor): That’s what sequels are, yep.

Chris Hewitt: If they called it ‘Two-icide Squad’, would that make it less confusing?

John: This opening sequence rug-pull, the failed Harley Quinn rescue attempt, is so great. It’s almost like it’s lampooning superhero action.

James: I like that she’s swapped her baseball bat for what appears to be a curtain rail.

John: That was always your bugbear, wasn’t it, James?

James: Yeah. Her superpower was a baseball bat. I still don’t understand what she contributes to this team.

Joanna Moran (Photography Director): She just brings a little bit of sass, doesn’t she?

Chris Hewitt: She’s the only unkillable one. The only one they won’t dare touch.

John: Yeah, she has box-office armour.

Chris Hewitt: But man, Margot Robbie is so good in that role.

James: This is my spirit animal, right here. What is this?

Joanna: It’s a weasel.

John: Character name: Weasel.

James: Well, that’s not ambiguous at all.

John: You can see Polka-dot Man there too.

James: Well, Harley Quinn is no longer the most shit member of the Squad. They’ve got Polka-dot Man now.

John: But he can fire magic polka-dots from his suit! That’s not shit.

Joanna: Is that like that Thai ping-pong trick? [Laughter]

James: Wow.

John: I don’t think they’re vagina polka-dots.

James: I like Idris Elba in this. I’m enjoying his long-suffering character.

John: He’s not often given the chance to be genuinely funny.

Chris Hewitt: I wonder what the tone of the final film is going to be — whether it is going to be a comedy, or whether there’s going to be more emotion that we don’t know about. There are shots of Harley where she seems to be emoting with rage, or pain, or grief or something.

Mike Cathro (Deputy Art Director) : James Gunn did ‘not necessarily good people but with heart’ well in Guardians. It’s going to tread that line, isn’t it?

John: What is the story behind this shark?

James: Well, they had a human alligator in the last one. Now they’ve got a human shark.

Chris Hewitt: Yep. From Killer Croc to King Shark.

John: He just ripped someone in half!

Mike: Like a jam sandwich.

Joanna: Is John Cena a bit of a nerd character or something?

John: He’s the Peacemaker. I think he’s been described as a kind of douchey Captain America — liberty at all costs.

James: John Cena makes me laugh.

Chris Hewitt: Who knew that John Cena would turn out to be some sort of madcap comedy genius?

Chris Lupton (Creative Director): “No problemo!” Amazing.

John: “A freaking kaiju up in this shit!”

Chris Lupton: Is this Taika Waititi?

John: Good question. Who is he playing? We haven’t see him anywhere in this trailer.

Chris Lupton: There is a villain in the comics called Starro and he’s just a giant starfish. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was voiced by Taika.

James: If you were going to cast Taika, a giant blue and pink starfish seems like a decent choice.

Mike: Like a killer Patrick Star from Spongebob.

Chris Hewitt: Well, that trailer alone was better than the first Suicide Squad movie in its entirety.

Mike: Hands down.

James: It seems, from the trailer, to have everything that the last film lacked.

John: Yeah, although that did have some really good trailers. I’m not doubting this will be good — you can trust James Gunn — but I loved the trailer from the first film. And we all remember how that turned out.

Mike: I’ve never really been massively excited for a DC film, apart from the Nolan Batman films. This is the first time in the first time I’ve been very excited.

Chris Hewitt: It’s fun trying to figure out which characters are going to get killed halfway through. There’s a few I can already see not in the final showdown.

Chris Lupton: I will say this. I’m going to get a T-shirt made that says, “Beach full of dicks, no problemo.”