Idris Elba Is Now Playing Suicide Squad’s Deadshot In The Best Possible Timeline

There's a new Deadshot in town.


Variety reports that, following Will Smith’s amicable exit from the role in the new Suicide Squad movie, Idris Elba is currently in talks to replace the Aladdin star following a meeting with director James Gunn.


Elba will join castmate Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn — and, honestly, it's one of the primary casting decisions we might possibly think of for the role.


It's also an informed choice, as Elba is a frontman with the acting chops and personality to bring the sympathetic villain to life. Smith played the doting father and expert marksman with a lot of heart, and as we’ve seen with Elba's other roles, he can certainly bring that same sort of energy to the screen.


The news comes about a week immediately after Smith was noted to be leaving the role, apparently due to scheduling conflicts. It looks like Gunn and crew are looking to move rapidly any time it comes to getting the new Squad with each other and pushing the sequel to the 2016 film out the door.


The Golden Globe-winning actor (and musician) is best known for his roles as The Wire's Stringer Bell and Luther's John Luther, although you’ve probably seen him in, well, everything. Joining Suicide Squad would mark his first foray into the DC movie universe, soon after playing the Asgardian sentry Heimdall in every one of the Thor films and two Avengers entries. He also brought us one of the coolest former Jaeger pilots ever in the action-packed kaiju-centric flick Pacific Rim.


Elba is regularly a most-wanted actor whenever it comes to taking over the role of James Bond, also — nevertheless he’s apparently uninterested in bringing us his version of the legendary agent as he doesn’t like to take on roles that "define" him in a new interview with the Daily Mail.


We don’t know a ton about the Suicide Squad sequel just nevertheless, as there have been scant specifics released about it for now. What we do know, nevertheless, is that Elba would be joining a cast that still includes Robbie as Harley Quinn, nevertheless we haven't had confirmation that Quinn or the rest of the villains from the initial movie will be coming back for a second round. Robbie, in the meantime, is starring in a spinoff flick featuring Quinn, called Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), where Harley splits from the Joker and becomes essentially a complimentary woman."


While Smith exhibited some serious charisma and chemistry as Deadshot, we know Elba is more than capable of bringing the villain with an apparent heart of gold to life.


Here's to hoping we get extra specifics about the film soon, also. It’s high time the Squad got back together.