Suicide Squad Actor Confirms Reshoots, Denies They're to Make the Movie Funnier

Last week, it was reported that upcoming DC superhero movie Suicide Squad was undergoing 11th-hour reshoots in an attempt to lighten the tone. Now, Jai Courtney, who plays Captain Boomerang in the film, has spoken up to confirm that while reshoots did take place, they mostly involved action sequences.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Courtney was asked if the reshoots were being done to add more lighthearted moments such as the one from the trailer that shows Boomerang cracking open a beer in the midst of a fight. He said the movie already has "plenty of that" in it.

"I wouldn't say we're going back to make it funnier," he explained. "There's some additional action stuff that we've been doing, which is pretty dope. Really, we're just kind of adding in that sense."

"You can't believe everything you read."

A source said last week that Warner Bros. was spending "tens of millions of dollars" to add some more comedic elements. You may recall that the first Suicide Squad trailer did have some amount of humor to it, but last week's report cited a source saying "every joke in the movie is in that trailer."

Also in the interview, Courtney talks about his initial skepticism regarding playing Captain Boomerang, considering the character's controversial Australian origins and how he himself is Australian.

"When you're talking about the genesis of that character, it was in really camp, '60s comics," he said. "You read that old material and he's racist. It's a cliche, old, Aussie stereotype. There are certain things [in the comics] and I'm like, 'I can't say that and be proud of it, as an Australian.'"

"But thank God they gave [the part] to an Aussie and not someone trying to do a terrible version of our accent."

Suicide Squad is directed by Fury's David Ayer, and tells the story of a group of death row supervillains who are employed covertly by the US government to perform dangerous missions, in return for reduced prison sentences. It stars Jared Leto as Joker, alongside Will Smith as Deadshot and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn.

Last month, it was rumored that even though the film doesn't open until August, a sequel was already in development. Variety's Justin Kroll reported that he had "been hearing for awhile the studio wants this sequel up as quickly as possible and that they also want all players back including Ayer."

Suicide Squad hits theaters on August 5, 2016.