John Cena In Talks To Suit Up For James Gunn's 'The Suicide Squad'

Looks like writer/director James Gunn truly is using a similar formula with DC's The Suicide Squad as he did with Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy – at least when it comes to casting. Gunn chose Dave Bautista, a former wrestler, to play one of the members of his ensemble in Guardians, and now a new report says that former wrestler John Cena is in talks to join returning players Margot Robbie, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, and fellow newcomer Idris Elba in the ensemble cast of The Suicide Squad.

According to Variety, Cena is in talks to come aboard Warner Bros. and DC's Suicide Squad sequel, which is scheduled to begin production sometime this fall. There's no word about which character he might play, but taking a look at an early list of characters, Cena seems like he might be a good fit for Peacemaker, a peace agent whose "motives are driven by an extremist form of pacifism, which makes him love peace so much he would kill for it." This will be Cena's first comic book movie, and considering his track record with comedic performances over the past few years, it seems like he'd be a great fit for a character with such an inherently funny duality.

Peacemaker is a role Gunn apparently wanted his Guardians actor Dave Bautista to play, but we haven't heard anything about Bautista officially joining this project yet. Would it be too much to have two high-profile pro wrestlers in the same movie? If that Peacemaker role truly is earmarked for Bautista, I'd personally love to see Cena play Polka-Dot Man instead, just because that sounds like the most ridiculous thing that could happen. (Polka-Dot Man wears "a bizarre costume covered in spots, the point of which soon became apparent – once removed from the costume, the spots could be used for a variety of purposes, creating deadly weapons and a bizarre escape vehicle." This movie is going to be wild.)

Margot Robbie is reportedly coming back to play Harley Quinn, Viola Davis is back as Amanda Waller, and Jai Courtney is returning as Captain Boomerang. Idris Elba was reportedly going to replace Will Smith as Deadshot, but now Elba is apparently playing an entirely new character in order to potentially allow Smith to return to the role down the line if the opportunity arises.

The Suicide Squad is currently slated to arrive in theaters on August 6, 2021.