King Shark has always been a deeply underrated DC supervillain. After a very tangled origin story that seemed to establish him as the son of a Shark God (we think) and set him up as an enemy for Superboy, he eventually found himself as a respectable C-grade brawler with a neat gimmick who occasionally joined villainous teams like the Secret Six and the Suicide Squad.
Nowadays, he’s probably most well known for his appearances on The CW’s The Flash, where he was voiced by Solid Snake himself, David Hayter. He was also considered for a role in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, where he likely would’ve occupied the man-monster spot on the team filled by Killer Croc in the version that we ultimately got.
It’s a shame he didn’t make the final cut, but at least we know he’ll now be appearing in James Gunn’s upcoming sequel, confusingly titled The Suicide Squad. And he’ll be played by none other than Guardians of the Galaxy star Michael Rooker. Yes, Yondu is making the trek over from the MCU to join his frequent collaborator in the DCEU, and we couldn’t be more excited about it.
It’s unknown how large of a role he’ll have, but we imagine King Shark will be one of the main players and Rooker will now be part of an all-star cast that features Margot Robbie returning as Harley Quinn, with Jai Courtney likewise reprising the Captain Boomerang role. Newcomer Idris Elba, meanwhile, is set to suit up as a different character yet to be revealed. And if that weren’t enough, former WWE Champion John Cena is locked in to play Peacemaker.
The Suicide Squad opens in cinemas on August 6th, 2021, and though the first film certainly add its flaws, it sure does seem like James Gunn is cooking up something truly special here. He’s got a strong history of taking quirky and off-beat characters from the comics and tuning them into household names and we suspect he’ll be able to do the same with this upcoming sequel.