Suicide Squad had a massive opening weekend, the sort of weekend that gets studios discussing sequels on Monday morning. Knowing that a sequel is likely, it turns out that at least one of the characters who could appear in it may be somewhat unlikely. While El Diablo doesn't survive to the end of Suicide Squad, the actor behind the character is hinting that his character might not be as done as we thought. What's more, it sounds like there were other plans for the character once upon a time.
There are two members of the Suicide Squad who don't make it out alive. One is a character who was obviously designed to simply be fodder, the other, Jay Hernandez's El Diablo, was actually one of the deeper and more complex characters in the film. He goes out, literally, in a blaze of glory. However, the actor tells comicbook.com that the initial plan for the character was somewhat different and that there's always a chance he could return for Suicide Squad 2.
It was interesting, because there were some changes that happened later on. I didn't know that's how the end was going to happen, early on. For me, it was important to make it good, make it impressive, and go out in a blaze of glory. [...] Of course there is [a chance he could return]! I'm not saying anything, just that it's a possibility.
When Jay Hernandez talks about "changes that happened," we have to assume that he's making reference to the reshoots that Suicide Squad went through, alongside reports that Warner Bros. recut the film in a significant new way. It's possible that El Diablo saw a very different fate in the original version of the film, and only died after changes were made. If the plan had been to keep him alive, that could make it possible that the filmmakers will contrive a reason to bring him back.
First and foremost, Suicide Squad is a comic book movie, and as in any fantasy story, the first rule is, if there's no body (and sometimes when there is), they're not necessarily dead. El Diablo blows up along with Incubus during a climactic battle where the former sacrifices himself to save everybody else. As the explosion is a massive one, we never see a corpse of the squad member, and as his abilities were never fully explained, there's always the possibility that he's still alive somehow.
While there were talks long before Suicide Squad was even released that a sequel was in development, it's unlikely that plans are so far along that Jay Hernandez would actually know if El Diablo was coming back, even though he seems to hint that here. It's possible director David Ayer, who also wrote the screenplay, let him in on future plans, if and when they happened.
Would you like to see the return of El Diablo in a future DC comics movie, or do you think his sacrifice was the right way to go out? Let us know in the comments.
