World, meet the Suicide Squad, Suicide Squad meet… okay, never mind. Empire’s December issue debuts some of the most twisted, antisocial bunch of psychopaths we've ever run into - to paraphrase Ralph Meeker in The Dirty Dozen - and the squad’s ensemble of gnarly crims have now been unleashed over a series of spectacular new covers. Here are some exclusive stills from the film to fill in some gaps, including, to kick off, a closer look at the villain of a piece that’s hardly short of villainous types to chose from.
Amanda Waller – played, of course, by Angela Bassett in Green Lantern – is given menacing new life in Suicide Squad by double-Oscar nominee Viola Davis. Waller is, officially at least, the government apparatchik who'll be giving out the squad’s orders. Of course, it’s more complicated than that. As this exclusive on-set image hints, she’s no Agent Coulson.
“She’s relentless in her villainy,” Davis tells Empire. “When you look at her, there’s nothing that seems dangerous. Her only power is her intelligence and her complete lack of guilt.” To emphasise the stress on the latter, Davis points out that she read a book called Confessions Of A Sociopath to prep for the role. Note, too, the identity parade of Suicide Squad-ers behind here, presumably being sold by Waller as a viable - and deniable - means of achieving Task Force X’s shady goals.
More likely to be reading Confessions Of A Human Dustbin is Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s Killer Croc. This lethal luggage is better known as Waylon Jones and, as the actor who plays him explains, “he’s a cannibal with rage issues”.
This picture shows him with one of the current and future DC universe’s main events: Margot Robbie’s mischief-making Harley Quinn. “She’s a fan fave,” producer Richard Suckle elaborates. “Funny, crazy, scary… You can’t come up with enough adjectives to describe all the different things you see her do.”
Quinn is, of course, ever-more entwined with a malign influence we initially find incarcerated in Arkham Asylum. Jared Leto’s Joker may be straitjacketed in this still, but his power over Quinn’s doctor is obvious right there in their body language.
Finally comes Cara Delevingne's Enchantress. Much more than just an emo Scarlet Witch, the Brit's sorceress is an ancient force who’s unleashed in the movie. “She’s been trapped for so long,” Delevingne reveals ominously, “and now she’s finally been let out.”
Read our exhaustive Suicide Squad guide here.