James Gunn Says He Considered Sportsmaster For ‘The Suicide Squad’

The Suicide Squad features an impressively bizarre group of villains but director James Gunn says he nearly used Sportsmaster.

After James Gunn unveiled his weird group of supervillains for The Suicide Squad at DC FanDome last month, the director recently revealed he considered using another strange villain for his DC film. Apparently Sportsmaster was nearly made the director’s new version of Task Force X, but unfortunately Lawrence Crock wasn’t picked. Sportsmaster was last seen on Stargirl, played by LOST‘s Neil Hopkins as a member of the Injustice Society of America.

Sportsmaster has also been seen on Young Justice, which heavily explored his family, Tigress and Artemis. The villain first appeared in All-American Comics #85 was created by John Ostrander, Irwin Hasen, Kim Yale and John Broome. Director James Gunn previously revealed he wasn’t forbidden from using any character he wanted. But when speaking to fans on Instagram about The Suicide Squad,  Gunn confirmed that he considered using Sportsmaster in the upcoming film.

Do you think James Gunn should’ve included Sportsmaster in the film? What do you think about the version of Sportsmaster that appears in Stargirl? Should the movies adapt the character? Sound-off in the comments below!

The first Suicide Squad followed a team of supervillains who were recruited by the government for a dangerous black ops mission in exchange for reduced sentences. The ensemble cast included Will Smith as Deadshot, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, and Jared Leto as The Joker. However, James Gunn is expected to deliver on the fresh take on the team in his upcoming movie.

Written and directed by James Gunn, The Suicide Squad stars David Dastmalchian, John Cena, Jai Courtney, Joaquín Cosío, Nathan Fillion, Joel Kinnaman, Mayling Ng, Flula Borg, Sean Gunn, Juan Diego Botto, Storm Reid, Pete Davidson, Taika Waititi, Alice Braga, Steve Agee, Tinashe Kajese, Daniela Melchior, Peter Capaldi, Julio Ruiz, Jennifer Holland, Viola Davis, Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, and Michael Rooker.

James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is currently set to be released on August 6, 2021. Stay tuned for all the latest news on the film and be sure to subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for more original video content!

Source: Instagram (via Reddit)