Diablo Was Originally Supposed To Survive Suicide Squad

Long before Suicide Squad hit theaters, confidence was high in the Warner Bros. camp as the studio quietly put together plans for a sequel starring the titular group.

Those plans took a major blow days before David Ayer’s anti-hero feature arrived, though, when early reviews blasted Suicide Squad as a calamitous mess and, perhaps most disappointing of all, a wasted opportunity. But the box office numbers said otherwise and after earning an impressive $745 million, Suicide Squad 2 is now brewing in pre-production.

Already, we know that Jared Leto, Margot Robbie and Will Smith are all back on board to reprise their respective roles – Joker, Harley Quinn and Deadshot – and a few months back, Jay Hernandez even teased that he might be returning as Diablo. Yes, despite his character’s death, the actor has hinted a few times now that he could be set for a return and today we’re learning that originally, he wasn’t even supposed to die in the film.

The revelation comes thanks to a VFX sizzle reel which shows a shot of the Suicide Squad after defeating Enchantress. As you can see down below, Diablo’s standing here alongside the team and as VFX composer Francisco Franco reveals in the video, he had to remove the character during post-production.

Though this intriguing bit of information probably won’t change anyone’s mind about the film, it’s certainly interesting to learn that Diablo could’ve survived had they stuck to the original plan. After all, he was one of the unexpected highlights in what was, by all accounts, a fairly mediocre movie. 

Let’s be honest, no one was expecting such a low-grade villain from the comics to be one of Suicide Squad‘s best characters, but Jay Hernandez gave a great performance as the tragic hero who can’t control his pyrotechnic powers. He even got a heroic sacrifice where he went up against Enchantress’ monstrous brother.

With any luck, Diablo will be back for Suicide Squad 2 and if he his, hopefully Warner Bros. will handle the character a lot better than the first time around.