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THIS WEEK we talk a bit about the recent SUICIDE SQUAD trailer, which has done much to bolster some confidence that WB is willing to put some fun in their films.

To hear our initial reactions to the trailer, check out the most recent episode of LOS FANBOYS below!

5 Questions We Have After Watching the SUICIDE SQUAD “Blitz” Trailer

BATMAN v SUPERMAN has definitely taken a mammoth beating from most critics and some fans over the past few weeks. While a jumbled plot seemed to be one of the main reasons for the hate, another oft-quoted word has been “joyless.” In a world where Marvel seems to celebrate its comic book origins with quirky, tongue-in-cheek jokes, DC seems to wallow in it in a most depressing fashion.

However, as if in direct response these criticism, we got this fun, over-the-top, boisterous trailer for their next film, SUICIDE SQUAD, set to the song “Ballroom Blitz.” While I won’t say this is exactly what I needed to see after watching BATMAN v SUPERMAN (I’m probably one of the few who really enjoyed the movie, despite its flaws — which, I find have nothing to do with its dark tone), it was still an absolute joy to watch. 

As I mentioned in last week’s LOS FANBOYS PODCAST, it represented the best kind of trailer — one that gave you a real flavor of what you’re getting into, gave you a springboard premise, and then showed what’s essentially a sizzle reel of what’s in the film. There were no real spoilers, and very little indication of how everything connected. And while that’s great for a trailer, it definitely left us with some questions about the film.

So without further ado, here are five questions we had about SUICIDE SQUAD after watching the most recent trailer.

1. What’s Up With the Timeline?

Given the fact that DC and WB have pretty much jumped straight into the world of the Justice League, it would make sense that some of these ancillary films would take place out of chronological order. WONDER WOMAN doesn’t take place after the events in BATMAN v SUPERMAN, and for a while, it seemed like SUICIDE SQUAD would likely take place before the events in the film as well. However, at the beginning of the trailer, the man in a suit clearly brings up Superman — this would, at the very least, put these events after MAN OF STEEL. But the biggest telltale here is that he talks about the character in the past tense. While it’s easy to brush past this, it seems to indicate that this film takes place after the events of BvS as well. This isn’t just a Superman world, it’s a post-Superman world.

But that’s not all. Okay, so the film takes place after BvS, but what about the timeline of the film itself. At the very least, it seems to jump back and forth in time. The fact that we see glimpses of Harley Quinn before her transformation seems to indicate as such, but will she be the only one receiving an origin story, or will this occur to all of our main cast á la WATCHMEN? Is the main “plot” nothing more than a thin frame narrative for the real story, which could focus more on the individual characters?

This question leads into the next. In what timeline is Joker’s involvement?

2. What’s Joker’s Involvement

How does the Clown Prince of Crime’s play into this movie? Based on the first official trailer, it seemed like he would only come back in Harley’s flashback scenes, but in the “Blitz” trailer, it seems like he’ll be much more integral than originally thought. In fact, about a minute-and-a-half into the trailer, it’s played like Task Force X is responding uneasily to the geriatric laugh ofthe Joker. 

Is this a crafty editing trick meant to mislead the audience, or does the main plot of the film actually deal with taking down or saving the Joker? It wouldn’t be a huge surprise if the main mission of Task Force X involves the Joker. Some have speculated this would be the case, and because of Harley Quinn’s history with the Joker, maybe that’s why she was picked for this mission in the first place.  But if that’s the case, then are the mysterious forces a result of the Joker? If Task Force X was meant to take down the Joker, then it would make sense, but what if their mission was to save the Joker?

3. Who is the Unknown Enemy?

Just who in the heck are Task Force X fighting in the trailers? Not only do you have that crazy tentacle monster in the subway, but you also have these barnacle-covered zombies that almost look like off-brand versions of Killer Croc, only much less defined in their features. It’s hard to tell, but from the looks of it, these guys don’t have much in the way of grace and brains. They seem to be at the beck and call of some greater, smarter force. But who is this greater force?

As mentioned above, perhaps that force is the Joker, but that doesn’t seem right.

My gut tells me that they may be underlings of the Enchantress, who has been rumored to be the main villain of the piece for some time. However, this theory doesn’t quite line up with a few other observations, and thus her involvement is the next on my list of questions.

4. Is Enchantress the Puppet Master?

How does this girl play into the story? To delve into that, I’m going to cheat a bit and pull some information and screenshots from the previous trailer. 

First is this one:

Here it looks like June Moon, who is possessed by the Enchantress, is in cahoots with Rick Flag. As we’ve seen in the most recent trailer, Flag is the one calling all the shots with Task Force X. But there’s no way that Enchantress is pulling the strings for Task Force X, is there?

For that, I take you to another screenshot from the previous trailer.

Now take that picture, and compare it to the one from the “Blitz” trailer.

Now, it seems perfectly possible that Enchantress may be pulling even Amanda Waller’s strings here. Now does that make her the villain of the film? That’s definitely possible. However, it seems to go against my earlier gut feeling that she’s the one controlling the zombie horde in the previous bullet.

If Task Force X’s mission involves the Joker, and if Enchantress is controlling that mission, then it makes no sense that she would be impeding her own progress. So is some mysterious third force causing trouble for them, or are the zombie dudes somehow being controlled by the Joker? 

That all remains to be seen.

5. How Much Batman Will We See?

This last question doesn’t tie into the other four as well, but it’s an obvious one. How much does Batman play into the story? So far, we’ve only seen a few shots: One of him on top of Joker’s car, one of him swan diving to save Harley Quinn, and another of him carrying Harley to the Batmobile.

It would seem like common sense that this would all be an integral part of Harley Quinn’s flashback, but we already know that part of her flashback would involve her actually falling into the vat of acid. The Joker car scenes, from what we see, have her already post-crazy, and as a result may not be a flashback after all.

Of course, I can be wrong. Perhaps there is a short montage of Harley and Joker causing trouble after her transformation, but is it possible that all those scenes occur in the present timeline? If that is, in fact, the case, it’s reasonable to assume that Batman’s involvement may be more than we are being led to believe. This is the rumor that seems to be going around, and while the trailer is definitely ambiguous, it does leave room for that interpretation to be made.

BONUS: What’s Up With Captain Boomerang and His Unicorn?

Why?

Conclusion

All in all, this trailer has done very little to clear up any plot questions. As I said at the top of this piece, this is probably the best aspect of the trailer. I can pick apart, I can question, and I can theorize, but at the end of the day, I don’t think it’ll take any enjoyment away from me when the film comes out, as the shots shown can be interpreted in a myriad of different ways.

But what do you think?

Did you like the trailer? Do you have any answers to the questions I posed, or do you have some of your own? Let us know in the comments down below!

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