WB Incorrectly Says Idris Elba Plays Deadshot In Birthday Tweet

The Suicide Squad became a new instant favorite DC movie amongst fans when it dropped a few weeks ago. Not only did it deliver more of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, it introduced several other scene-stealing characters, too, like King Shark, Peacemaker and Bloodsport, as played by Idris Elba. Bloodsport was effectively the main character of the film, much like Will Smith’s Deadshot, another ace assassin, was the lead of 2016’s Suicide Squad.

In an embarrassing snafu, Warner Bros. has now mixed up those two characters in a tweet celebrating Elba’s birthday. Today, Sept. 6, sees the British actor turn 49 years old and the WarnerBros. UK Twitter account decided to acknowledge his birthday with what should’ve been a special message. Unfortunately, instead of remembering that he played Bloodsport in James Gunn’s recent flick, they mislabeled his role as “Deadshot.”

“Some may know him as Stringer Bell, others as Deadshot… Happy birthday, @idriselba!” read the tweet, along with a graphic of Elba’s The Wire and TSS characters. The account quickly realized their mistake and replaced it with another message but the damage was done, with the replies to the fixed tweet being full of jabs at the unfortunate error. Here’s a screenshot of the original tweet, with the replacement below it:

As fans will know, it was long thought that Elba was originally hired to replace Smith as Deadshot before the studio elected to give him a fresh character instead, which would explain the similar role Bloodsport fills in the plot. However, Elba himself has denied this was ever the case. Even with that denial, Robert Du Bois still can’t quite get out of Floyd Lawton’s shadow, as WB’s typo tweet accidentally makes clear.

It’s unclear if or when Idris Elba could return as Bloodsport, but the Peacemaker spinoff series is coming to HBO Max this January.