‘Arrow’ version of Suicide Squad (plus Cisco on ‘The Flash’) came via request
When we first had a chance to see the “Arrow” version of the Suicide Squad, it was a cause for tremendous excitement. After all, we had a chance to get to know Deadshot further, to see John Diggle take on a slightly different role, and get some other characters like Bronze Tiger involved. Heck, even Harley Quinn made a super-tiny cameo, one that continues to frustrate us because it reminds us how she could have been a bigger part of this show.
Ultimately, what also frustrated us was how quickly the show decimated the squad. Deadshot is dead; Bronze Tiger tied in a comic tied to the show. Amanda Waller is even now gone. Why do all of this? At the time, we learned that it was to create less confusion between the TV and movie versions of the Suicide Squad, but what makes this all the more interesting now is that we’ve learned that the show’s producers were asked to create this group just for the sake of gauging interest in a movie. This is something that super-producer Greg Berlanti touched on in a new interview with Vulture regarding his relationship with Warner Bros. and DC Comics’ head Geoff Johns:
“[Some executives] said to us a year and a half before they started developing Suicide Squad, ‘Will you guys put [a version of] the Suicide Squad in your show? Because we want to have it as a film at some point.’ It also happened with Geoff when Geoff and Andrew [Kreisberg] and I were creating Flash. They were both really huge fans of Cisco Ramon, [also known as] Vibe, and had written a Vibe comic [in 2013] to try and bring him back. They said, ‘Could we please have Vibe on the show?'”
In the end, hearing all of this probably doesn’t come as a huge shock, but this is a further indicator that sometimes, the movie and TV arms of DC operate in some interesting ways. We do think that this has started to shift and change somewhat, with Superman being on “Supergirl” serving as a great example of how things may not be so stringent as they once were.
Both “Arrow” and “The Flash” are going to be premiering on The CW later this fall. Stay tuned for more news, or sign up over here to secure some other TV news on everything we cover via our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: The CW.)