Casting is wrapping up for The Suicide Squad and there is a strong rumor as to who is in the running for King Shark. It should surprise no one considering he is in every James Gunn movie and is used to wearing a fin on his head.
TheWrap reported yesterday none other than Michael Rooker is up for the role of the animalistic son of a shark god conscripted into Amanda Waller’s Task Force X. At this point, the actor is believed to be in the “talks” phase but King Shark is probably his.
Rooker is close friends with Gunn and was a staunch defender of his in the midst of the Twitter controversy that cost the director his chair at the head of Guardians of the Galaxy 3 for a short time. He was also the first to all but guarantee publicly Gunn would direct the Suicide Squad reboot once he completed writing it, which he is.
Rounding out the official cast is David Dastmalchian as Polka-dot Man, a newcomer from Portugal Daniela Melchior as a revamped Ratcatcher, Idris Elba in an undisclosed role, and the returning cast from David Ayer’s prior attempt: Margot Robbie, Jai Courtney, Joel Kinnaman, and Viola Davis.
We might have seen the reunion of Gunn, Rooker, and Dave Bautista in the DC Extended Universe but scheduling prevented that outcome. The role Big Dave was vying for, Charlton’s Peacemaker, it pretty much in the bag for his old in-ring rival, John Cena.
King Shark was created by Karl Kesel and debuted in 1994. His first appearance was[easyazon_link identifier=”1401243177″ locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]Superboy vol. 3[/easyazon_link], a cameo in #0, and since then he has ran afoul of the Metropolis Kid and Aquaman now and again. He didn’t have any allegiance to the Suicide Squad until The New 52 which is when his popularity started to skyrocket.
Also known as Nanaue, Shark has made a slew of memorable appearances in DC Animated features and The Flash on The CW.
How do you feel about Michael Rooker playing King Shark? Was it kind of obvious? Leave us a comment.