Will Smith gets himself stuck between a rock of controversies and a hard place, who happens to be finding redemption for the slap gate controversy in the 2022 Oscars. Now, trying to make amends for his self-realized wrongs that he has done, he seeks one more chance from the Hollywood industry. Although, it is a little hard for him, especially when he has already been kind of sidelined, and not because of his controversies.
In a recent interview with DC Films’ concept artist David Levy, the man behind visualizing the scenes of James Gunn-directed blockbuster The Suicide Squad, as well as DC Films’ new co-CEO Peter Safran has come out to reveal that there was previously an idea to replace Will Smith’s Deadshot from the 2016 film of the same name with Idris Elba, but Gunn decided to put a stop to it due to his liking to the character.
Will Smith Was Planned To Be Replaced By Idris Elba
When the news reached the ears of the 2016’s Suicide Squad movie that Idris Elba has been chosen to be the lead actor to play a role in James Gunn’s version of the movie, they thought that this was a clear indication of Will Smith being replaced as the Deadshot that they had come to love on screen. But what they didn’t know was that Gunn himself was a big fan of the After Earth star and his depiction of the rad gun for hire.
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In an interview with Behance, the visual artist for 2021’s The Suicide Squad David Levy revealed that there were plans of making Elba the new cast of Deadshot, but was later scrapped by James Gunn because he wanted to keep Will Smith as the original. Peter Safran also shared his side of the story while talking with ScreenRant, explaining that there were talks of removing Smith from the picture, but the schedule of production happened to make Gunn do it without him, thus introducing a brand new character for Elba, called Bloodsport. Safran said:
“We’d discussed it, but it was… I think the ‘Will’ of it all was really more of a schedule thing than anything else. We knew we had to start shooting in September because, frankly, we knew probably earlier than other people did that James was going to come back and do Guardians. So it was really important that we started shooting when we started shooting, and Will wasn’t available. That kind of made it easier all around: what are you going to do? He’s not available. So it’s also nice to, frankly, help separate it from the first movie, I think, in a greater fashion.”
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Will We See Will Smith’s Deadshot Again?
If we had to make an educated guess as to whether we might see characters from the old Suicide Squad, we might put it in a strong no. The reasons are obvious though because there are characters from the original film The Suicide Squad, which are Rick Flag and Harley Quinn. If the studio had any intention of bringing Will Smith back from the dead, then this would’ve been the opportunity. But when they didn’t, it was safe to assume that these were just rumors.
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The Suicide Squad, now available on HBO Max
Source: The Direct
