IDRIS ELBA

TF meets the straight-shooting Bloodsport.

Early reports suggested you were going to be replacing Will Smith as Deadshot, rather than playing Bloodsport. Was that ever the case?

My character isn’t related to Deadshot at all. Bloodsport is a different character, so yeah, it was misreported. This is a different body [of work] and essentially some characters exist in both, but this offers the chance for new characters. Mine is one of them.

Some of the Suicide Squad are genuinely bad, but others were just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Where does Bloodsport fit on that spectrum?

I think his journey is that he’s a bad guy that’s done bad things and is in jail for it, and he’s probably resigned to sitting in jail forever. But there are complexities in his family life that make him rethink that within the film. Without giving away too much, it gives him a reason to be part of the squad.

The first trailer for The Suicide Squad hinted that Bloodsport might feel protective towards Ratcatcher 2. Is that an accurate assumption?

That’s one of the heartbeats, of which there are many in a film like this. There’s this real throughline, with Bloodsport and his relationship with his daughter, and Ratcatcher and her relationship with her father. We explore that a little bit. James Gunn is really keen to not just make a film that ticks all the boxes in terms of action, spectacle and scale, but also takes us back to a place of nostalgia when filmmaking did a bit of both. In those moments you care about the characters a little more when they’re running for their lives or dodging bullets.

Is Bloodsport one of the leaders of Task Force X?

Waller has this particular criteria of how she wants the job to get done. In this instance, it turns out that she picks me because of my experience of running big teams. I come from an army background, and have really earned my stripes in that capacity. So, I wouldn’t say he was the leader, but his tactics are really how they start to really pull this together. But I’ll tell you now, he’s not interested in being the leader – he’s very much thrust into that position when it all goes down.

You’ve played Heimdall in the MCU and now Bloodsport in the DCEU. Is that as big a deal for you as it is for fans?

It’s a big deal. I mean, the irony isn’t lost on me and neither is how special that is. I’m a fan of both, and the Marvel family and I made some great films. Now I’m in the DC family I kind of liken myself to a footballer being traded from one great team to another!