David Ayer confirms Suicide Squad originally featured Steppenwolf

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

When SUICIDE SQUAD was released in 2016 it was met with – to put it gently – mixed response. There were elements that worked and elements that didn’t, and although Jared Leto’s Joker – tattooed and no doubt a big Skrillex fan – would have made a better main antagonist, Cara Delevingne’s Enchantress is who we got. However, there could have been a much bigger main baddie behind the evil deeds of the powerful witch, and recently director David Ayer confirmed that JUSTICE LEAGUE’s Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) was originally the one pulling the strings with the use of the Mother Box, making an appearance before taking on Superman, Batman and the rest of the do-gooders one year later.

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This little tidbit came to light after Ayer was asked by someone on Twitter about Steppenwolf’s role after concept art from SQUAD showed the character and the Parademons confronting the team of bad guys. Ayer confirmed the art was legit, saying, “This is right. Enchantress was under the control of a mother box and Steppenwolfe [sic] was prepping an invasion with a boom tube. Had to lose that then the JL story arcs evolved.” Below is the full tweet. 

We can also determine from this that the gooey, deformed Ninja-Turtle minions of Enchantress were originally meant to be Parademons and that everything would’ve linked back to JL. What we don’t know is how far this concept made it into the final product, including if it was filmed and then altered during the extensive reshoots or if it was scrapped before production started. Either way, it looks like the plan was to have everything connect to a larger shared universe – as that year’s BATMAN V. SUPERMAN had already teased more cosmic villains, including Steppenwolf and the hulking Darkseid. In the end, it seems they wanted SQUAD to be more of a fun, side project while the main heroes handled the major threats.

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It’s hard to say whether or not having Steppenwolf around would have helped the movie. On one hand, having the Squad go up against him and Parademons would have been a true suicide mission, as even Aquaman and Wonder Woman had a hard time taking them down. On the other, it would’ve made the big bad’s introduction in LEAGUE an easier pill to swallow, like having Loki in THOR before coming back for AVENGERS. Oh well, what we got was what we got, and the movie still made some money and word is James Gunn is on board for a new outing with the team, and Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn is one busy lady in Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). Try saying that five times fast.