WB Gets Idris Elba's Suicide Squad Character Wrong In Birthday Message
Warner Bros. official UK Twitter account wishes Idris Elba a happy birthday but accidentally calls his Suicide Squad character Deadshot.
Warner Bros. birthday tweet for Idris Elba mistakenly calls his Suicide Squad character Deadshot instead of Bloodsport. Deadshot was a character in David Ayer's 2016 Suicide Squad played by Will Smith. The movie put a lot of focus on Smith's character, giving him a lengthy backstory and an ample amount of screen time. Deadshot was not a part of James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, which acts as a sequel/soft reboot to Ayer's film.
Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), and Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) were the only returning cast members in Gunn's film, but the director included over a dozen new villains to the team's roster, including Elba as Bloodsport. There was initially some confusion when Elba was first cast, with many thinking he was replacing Smith as Deadshot. That turned out to not be the case, with Elba playing a new character (albeit with a similar backstory and powers). Elba has addressed the confusion before, explaining that he and Gunn never wanted to simply recast Smith's character.
Today is Elba's birthday, and when WarnerBrosUK tweeted out a birthday message, they accidentally called him Deadshot instead of Bloodsport. The Twitter account was quick to fix their mistake, tweeting out the same message but with the name Bloodsport. A screenshot of the now-deleted tweet can be seen below.
Bloodsport was one of the lucky few that made it out alive at the end of The Suicide Squad. While Smith's Deadshot is unlikely to return in a future DC project, it's very possible Bloodsport could return in a future movie or TV show. Peacemaker's spinoff series is hitting HBO Max early next year, which is one place Bloodsport could pop up. Gunn is now busy working on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but the director has expressed interest in making more DC movies. There was a rumor going around recently that Bloodsport was getting his own spinoff. However, Gunn quickly debunked that, explaining nothing was in development but that Bloodsport could return at some point.
As mentioned above, Bloodsport and Deadshot did have very similar powers and character arcs. Both are expert marksman with a complicated father-daughter relationship. The initial confusion is understandable, but Gunn did a good job of making Bloodsport his own unique character despite the similarities. With the success of The Suicide Squad, Bloodsport has become a popular character in the DCEU, meaning there are now likely fewer mix-ups between Idris and Smith's characters. That being said, the birthday message was a simple mistake on Warner Bros. part that was quickly corrected.
Source: WarnerBrosUK