Viola Davis Reportedly Returning as Amanda Waller, DC’s Greatest Anti-Villain, in The Suicide Squad

Academy Award-winning actress and future EGOT winner Viola Davis will return as Amanda Waller in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, says “an individual with knowledge of the project” according to the exclusive story by TheWrap.

Gunn, was hired by Warner Bros., following his initial Disney/Marvel firing, to reboot the Suicide Squad branch of the DCEU, which makes sense because SS was definitely trying to cash in on the ensemble superhero team-up success of Guardians of the Galaxy. While Gunn has subsequently been rehired to direct Vol. 3 of that franchise, Gunn will still direct and write this new Suicide Squad movie and will have a completely new take on the property. Thank goodness, and let’s also have a new take on that trash Joker, please?

Amanda Waller has been a staple of the Suicide Squad comic book franchise since it first began, and I became familiar with the character when she was in Justice League: Unlimited as the head of Project Cadmus and voiced by the pitch-perfect C.C.H. Pounder. What’s so fascinating about Waller as a character is that she’s such a badass that she can look Batman in the eye, call him “Rich Boy” to his face, and walk away without worrying about anything.

Waller switches between anti-hero and anti-villain frequently, because despite having some good intentions in what she does, her Machiavellian methods can cause her to be both an ally and enemy to the Justice League. Still, it’s important to note that Waller doesn’t just act behind the scenes and is perfectly capable of fighting off the other older bad-ass lady of the DCU, Granny Goodness.

I’m hoping that Gunn’s script will make full use of the skills of Viola Davis, who has more than proven herself able to carry a more action-centric movie as well as a drama. She wasn’t given enough to do in the first Suicide Squad movie, but she certainly still made an impression and was the only real villain worth a damn in the whole thing. (Sorry, Enchantress. Your hips lie.) We so rarely get to see dynamic Black villains in comics, and Waller is one of the best. I think that Gunn can find a way to make her compelling the same way he did with Ego in Vol. 2. 

Considering the successes that the DCEU has had lately and the upcoming, possibly R-rated Birds of Prey movie, I think that if they can take Suicide Squad and make it the violent, villain-driven movie it was always supposed to be, that would be an excellent reinvention for the franchise. Suicide Squad wasn’t even a terrible movie. It had a great cast and potential; it just had a script that meandered and couldn’t allow the bad/good guys to be as cool as their music video openings suggested.

As a DC fan, I’m looking forward to what these changes will mean, and more quality R-rated superhero movies is always a good thing in my opinion.

Let Amanda Waller punch Batman in the face!

(via The Wrap, image: Warner Bros.)

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