James Gunn may have started his career at schlock merchants Troma, written Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake and made his feature directorial debut on body horror Slither, but he’s always been known to inject plenty of heart into his projects. Despite also penning two live-action Scooby Doo movies and helming the PG-13 Guardians of the Galaxy duology, as a filmmaker his sensibilities have always tended to lean towards the R-rated.
A lot of talents to have worked with Warner Bros. and DC Films voice their enthusiasm before their film is released, only for it to come out in the aftermath that the finished product wasn’t reflective of their original vision. That most definitely isn’t the case with Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, and he wasn’t lying when he said he was handed almost complete creative freedom to do whatever he wanted, a rarity for the DCEU.
The ensemble of antiheroes, thieves, criminals and killers are slowly whittled down one by one until only a chosen few are left standing, and in a new interview Gunn admitted that there was one character in particular that he couldn’t bring himself to write out of the story.
“The original ending that I pitched, one main character died and one main character did not die. And the main character who died was Ratcatcher 2. She was so sweet, I just felt like it was just too dark. Not that we don’t love Polka Dot Man. We do. I just couldn’t kill her. So I relented.”
Fans definitely share that sentiment, with the internet buzzing over Daniela Melchior’s performance as Ratcatcher 2, an out of her depth young woman following in the family business who ends up part of a wild and crazy adventure, forging a surprisingly effective dynamic with Idris Elba’s roguish Bloodsport for good measure.
It’s a fantastic turn for a 24 year-old actress making her English-language debut, and audiences will be crossing their fingers she’s invited back for what feels like an inevitable third Suicide Squad.