It’s been done before – see Will Smith as Floyd Lawton in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad film – and Rocksteady’s new next-gen game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, unveiled at DC FanDome showcased a black Deadshot.
At first glance, this doesn’t seem like a big deal, but One Angry Gamer points out something about it that doesn’t make sense.
In an overlooked fact IGN reported, Kill the Justice League takes place in the same universe as the Batman: Arkham games where Deadshot was previously depicted as Caucasian.
“Speaking during DC FanDome, Rocksteady Studios’ Sefton Hill confirmed Suicide Squad is a ‘continuation of the Arkhamverse’ that began in Batman: Arkham Asylum and came to its seeming end in Batman: Arkham Knight,” IGN wrote.
Related: Rocksteady Teases Suicide Squad Game Where The Target Appears To Be Superman
Their report continued, “Hill explained that Suicide Squad is part of this world and will actually let players see the continuation of plot threads and characters first introduced in those Arkham games.”
“This is a continuation of the Arkhamverse, so a lot of the through threads and storylines you’re going to see come to fruition in this game,’’ Hill said, adding it doesn’t connect to Gotham Knights from WB Games Montreal.
Sefton would then detail, “When we start with any game, Rocksteady games are all about a character driven game. It’s all about that heart and soul of the characters that are brought to life.”
He continued, “So, we worked with DC, we looked at all the different properties, all the different great characters they have. And Suicide Squad really spoke to us because how fascinating these flawed characters are. And the fact that it’s a fusing of these characters together.”
“When you are creating a game, you are creating universe and you want to build it with real heart and soul inside it and that’s what really inspired us to make the Suicide Squad game,” Sefton said.
He then added, “Because, DC had this fantastic roster of villains being able to actually to play these villains and see the interaction and life between them is something that got us really energized and excited.”
Deadshot previously showed up in the Arkhamverse in Batman: Arkham: City, Batman: Arkham Origins and the tie-in animated movie Suicide Squad: Assault on Arkham, where he was depicted as a white man.
One Angry Gamer presented the following images of Deadshot in, respectively, Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Origins, and the animated movie Suicide Squad: Assault On Arkham to further prove their point.
Here he is in his first appearance in the Arkhamverse in Batman: Arkham City.
He is also the prime antagonist in the side mission “Shot in the Dark.”
Next, he would show up in Batman: Arkham Origins, a prequel to Rocksteady’s original Batman: Arkham Asylum game.
He then appeared in the tie-in Assault on Arkham animated film where the Suicide Squad was tasked with stealing Riddler’s cane.
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OAG notes the Deadshot wiki page for the Batman: Arkham games mentions the retcon of Deadshot’s ethnicity. An excerpt from the Trivia section reads:
”Despite being portrayed as a white male in the film Assault on Arkham and the games Arkham: Origins and Arkham: City as well as various other tie-in comics for the franchise, Deadshot is seemingly retconned as a black male in the upcoming game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.”
OAG writer, Billy, is of the opinion “Deadshot is just dead” because of a decision “to pander to the BLM crowd” and rioters wanting police defunded. He’s calling the move a “blatant and discriminatory act.”
Do you agree? Does it change your view of Kill the Justice League? Will you still play it? Leave all your answers down below.