Unused Suicide Squad Concept Art Features King Shark

I’ve always felt that King Shark is a deeply underrated DC supervillain. After a very tangled origin story that (I think) establishes him as the son of a Shark God and sets him up as an enemy for Superboy, he eventually settled into a comfortable life as a C-grade brawler with a neat gimmick who occasionally joined supervillain teams like the Secret Six and the Suicide Squad. These days, the character’s probably most well known for his appearances on The CW’s The Flash, where he was voiced by Solid Snake himself, David Hayter.

It turns out though that King Shark was considered for a role in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, presumably occupying the man-monster spot on the team filled by Killer Croc in the version that we ultimately got. And though it’s a shame he didn’t make the final cut, we at least have some concept art now showing us how he might have looked.

Now, I have absolutely no idea of the provenance of these images, and for all I know, they could be fake as hell. However, what film wouldn’t be improved by the addition of a half man/half shark in a Hawaiian shirt? Seriously.

This King Shark looks less like a monster from beyond the waves and more like a good times party bro you’d like to hang out with (does anyone remember Street Sharks?). Would Suicide Squad have been more of a critical hit he’d made the finished film? I suppose we’ll never know.

If this was actually considered though, I suspect the reason he didn’t make the roster is that you’d have to do the character as entirely CGI. Meanwhile, the movie’s take on Killer Croc merely used makeup, which would have helped keep the budget down. Still, Croc didn’t really do much in Suicide Squad, so on the whole, I’d have much rather have had this fun-looking guy hanging around, wouldn’t you?