(CBR) The Suicide Squad assembles on “Arrow” next month and CBR has the exclusive first look the fully assembled team.
As seen in these images, the government-formed group will consist of Ben Turner/Bronze Tiger (Michael Jai White), Mark Scheffer/Shrapnel (Sean Maher), Floyd Lawton/Deadshot (Michael Rowe), Lyla Michaels (Audrey Marie Anderson), series regular Diggle (David Ramsey) and Amanda Waller (Cynthia Addai-Robinson). The team’s arrival was foreshadowed earlier in “Arrow” season two with the debut of Waller — depicted on the show, as in New 52 comic book continuity, as Director of A.R.G.U.S. — and her subsequent recruitment of Bronze Tiger in January’s episode “Tremors.”
“Dig was our way into Amanda Waller, and in this episode, Amanda comes to Dig and Lyla, and she recruits Dig for a mission, and tells him he’s going to need a team — and she saddles him with the Suicide Squad,” “Arrow” executive producer Andrew Kreisberg said of the upcoming episode at a press event earlier this month.
The Suicide Squad name has its earliest roots in Silver Age DC Comics, but this team owes its inspiration to the more modern take introduced by writer John Ostrander in 1987’s “Legends” #3. The latest “Suicide Squad” ongoing series launched in September 2011 as part of DC’s New 52 relaunch and is scheduled to wrap in April with issue #30.
Based on Waller’s offer to Bronze Tiger in “Tremors,” the TV Suicide Squad looks to have a lot in common with its comic book inspiration — both groups are led by Amanda Waller and offer imprisoned supervillains the chance to take on black-ops missions for the government, in exchange for shorter prison sentences. Bronze Tiger and Deadshot were both in Ostrander’s original Suicide Squad team; Shrapnel has also been part of the group.
The “Suicide Squad” episode of “Arrow,” written by Keto Shimizu and Bryan Q. Miller, is scheduled to air at 8 p.m. March 19 on The CW.