So over the weekend, BTT Viewer A Rice tweeted me this meme - You either die a prince, or
live long enough to become Uncle Phil.
This is of course a reference to Will Smith’s breakout role in the 90s sitcom The Fresh
Prince of Bel Air, and the joke is as on target as Deadshot himself.
Yes, the former movie star - who famously calculated his entire career by analyzing
box office results - is in the process of trying to reinvent himself as, clearly, his
original formula no longer works.
And right now the box office is pretty much just saying one thing loud and clear - comic
book movies!
Welcome back to Suicide Squad Case Files, introducing you to each member of the team
as well as the actors who will bring them to life on the big screen in 2016.
Now Will Smith is also known for only willing to be in movies where he’s the star, a rule
that’s so important to him that he turned down what he felt was NOT the lead role in
Django Unchained.
So what’s he doing in an ensemble?
Well, truth be told, Deadshot kind of IS the star of Suicide Squad.
Sure, he’s not a founding member like Joel Kinnamen’s Rick Flag, but Deadshot has actually
had the longest runs on the team - with none other than Captain Boomerang a close second.
That’s right, the crazy line-up for this movie is actually pretty accurate as you’ll
find out as we continue with Suicide Squad Case Files.
So like I said, Smith demands that his characters be something special, and surely Deadshot’s
origin story helped pique Smith’s interest in taking on the role.
See, originally Floyd Lawton was another member of high society in Gotham with his own butler,
and as the popular vigilante Deadshot he threatened to replace Batman!
Only once Batman discovered that Deadshot was in cahoots with the criminal element - intentionally
going after smaller crimes to distract from the big ones - was the Deadshot Signal dismantled.
Yes, Lawton comes from a very wealthy but troubled family.
The basics are that his parents were cruel manipulative people and when his brother Ed
tried to kill his father - ordered to do so by their mother - Floyd accidentally shot
and killed his brother when trying to merely stop him.
Years later, a revenge plot orchestrated by his mother would lead to the rape and murder
of his son by pedophile Wes Anselm.
Deadshot killed Anselm, but - obviously - became even more troubled by the ordeal.
Some of this history could show up in the Suicide Squad movie, but these days in the
comics the bottom line with Floyd Lawton is that he’s an assassin for hire who never
misses, but because of his intense self-hatred he also has a death wish.
The only thing that seems to keep him going is his young daughter Zoe, who doesn’t know
what her father does for a living.
Although, keeping his daughter in the dark has allowed Amanda Waller to use Zoe as a
bargaining chip on more than one occassion.
Oh yeah, and there’s one other relationship that Deadshot has become well-known for - his
“friends with benefits” situation with fellow team member Harley Quinn.
When the New 52 launched, fans were not only surprised to see Harley Quinn on the Suicide
Squad - and by what she was wearing - but that she’d gotten a new man in her life,
Deadshot!
Now no one ever really “moves on” from the Joker, as Deadshot found out in both the
comics and the recent animated film Assault on Arkham - so now he finds himself part of
one of the weirdest, and most popular, love triangles in comics!
Or is that love square, counting Poison Ivy?
That Harley gets around...
Either way, this new connection has significantly raised Deadshot’s profile - enough so that
readers were caught off-guard when Warner Bros announced a black actor would be playing
the character for the movie.
No word yet on if this change will be reflected in the comics, but if the movie’s popular...
After all, Samuel L Jackson’s popularity as Nick Fury on the big screen led Marvel
to introduce Nick Fury’s long lost SON into their main continuity - as Nick Fury had only
been portrayed as black in the Ultimate comics line, an alternate universe.
See, after decades of whitewashing in Hollywood, tinseltown suddenly seems to be reversing
the trend due to the growing popularity of comic book movies and the need to diversify
casts after boffo successes like the Fast and Furious movies.
Comics are the midst of trying to diversify themselves...
This new trend started out with Nick Fury and Perry White, but will expand to major
characters first with Michael B Jordan’s Johnny Storm and then Will Smith’s Deadshot.
How these two characters are received will be a MAJOR test to see if Hollywood should
continue to diversify, although the recent nasty backlash from fans over the idea of
using Miles Morales instead of Peter Parker for the THIRD Spider-Man series was not a
good sign...
But while The Human Torch and Spider-Man are well-known characters, despite being around
since 1950 Deadshot is NOT.
And he’s even done some pretty bad-ass stuff.
For instance, when he ordered to stop fellow Suicide Squad member Rick Flag from killing
a corrupt senator “by any means necessary”, his solution was to kill the senator himself!
So what we’ve got here is a somewhat sympathetic villain with a juicy backstory, arguably the
star of the Suicide Squad, ties to incredibly popular characters Batman, Harley Quinn and
the Joker, plus he’s still something of an empty vessel?
No wonder Smith took the part!
After all, Smith desperately needs a new defining role.
He turned down Independence Day 2, Bad Boys 3 is taking FOREVER while Hancock 2 appears
to have disappeared into development hell, and Men in Black is being merged with Jump
Street for some cinematic universe parody that Sony is hyped about but maybe Smith isn’t...
The of course there are recent box office bombs Seven Pounds, After Earth and Focus.
Speaking of Focus, that film featured the first pairing of Smith and Margot Robbie - with
the tabloids saying sparks flew on AND off camera.
That rumor was further fueled by the two actors signing on to play lovers once again here
in Suicide Squad, before Focus even hit theaters.
So, can David Ayer turn Smith’s career around?
The former screenwriter turned writer-director did do alright by Denzel...
On-set photos reveal a costume pretty darn true to the comics and a daughter, but in
a movie this crowded with Smith’s Deadshot get the character development needed to really
make an impression on audiences?
Plus there’s another merc - with a mouth - hitting theaters in 2016, and he also wears
red and black.
It’ll be hard for Smith’s Deadshot to compete with the comic book character Ryan
Reynolds was born to play!
And finally, because hard-core fans demand to know, will this Deadshot smoke?!
What do you think?
Can Smith finally make Deadshot a household name?
Or will this be ANOTHER misfire in what’s getting to be a pretty long list at this point...?
Write your thoughts down below.
I’m Grace Randolph, and be sure to tell me who you want to see explored next on Suicide
Squad Case Files!
Harley Quinn and Amanda Waller are available to watch - right now!