James Gunn is surprised more people didn’t notice a Guardian Of The Galaxy in The Suicide Squad
Taika Waititi and Idris Elba aren't the only MCU alumni to come over to the DC side with Gunn
Film News James Gunn
The Suicide Squad marks once-and-future Marvel Cinematic Universe director James Gunn’s first movie for rivals DC, but the film still includes plenty of MCU crossover. Before Idris Elba played Bloodsport for Gunn, he guarded the Bifröst as Heimdall in Thor and its sequels; Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love And Thunder director Taika Waititi plays The Suicide Squad’s Ratcatcher, appearing in flashbacks as Ratcatcher 2’s dad.
But there’s someone else from the MCU that fans may have missed in The Suicide Squad. In a new interview with Variety, James Gunn says “no one, not a single person” has brought up to him “that there’s a Guardian Of The Galaxy in The Suicide Squad.” For those who didn’t notice, in the scene where the members of Task Force X go to the seedy Corto Maltese bar La Gatita Amable, one of the dancers is played by Mantis herself, Pom Klementieff. Gunn, who’s been paying attention to what fans say about the movie on Twitter, says he’s only seen two tweets where people have spotted her. And Klementieff hasn’t had many people reach out to her about the cameo, either, according to Gunn: “I talked to Pom the other day—I’m like, have people been asking you? She’s like, yeah, a couple people. But she’s just not being recognized. I’m like, what is going on? I can’t believe it!”
Klementieff first played Mantis—who has empathic powers that let her sense and manipulate others’ emotions through touch—in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2. She appeared as the character in Infinity War and Endgame, and is set to reprise her role in Thor: Love And Thunder next year.
In the same interview, Gunn addressed the movie’s mediocre opening weekend box office debut, saying, “The Suicide Squad is made to be seen first and foremost on a big screen. I think it’s gonna work just fine on television. Listen, movies don’t last because they’re seen on the big screen,” he says. “Movies last because they’re seen on television. Jaws isn’t still a classic because people are watching it in theaters. I’ve never seen Jaws in a movie theater. It’s one of my favorite movies.”
With the Delta variant spreading globally at an overwhelming speed, it’s understandable that, given the option of watching it at home on HBO Max, many would rather do that. Gunn gets that too, saying that as much as he’d want his movies to be watched in theaters, it’s still not fully safe to do so. “We’ve still got COVID, because people won’t get vaccinated, which, you know, they should. Hopefully—hopefully—that will not be a big deal to us in a year. And if that’s the case, what’s going to happen? We don’t know. Nobody knows. I care, because I would rather have people be able to go to the movies. But also, if they don’t, I’m not going to go slit my wrists. I don’t care that much,” he explains.
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I imagine she’d be recognized more if she’d had other high-profile roles, but most of us have only seen her looking like this:
I was gonna say, most people’s first exposure to her is with antennae and giant almost black eyes, how are they gonna recognize her?
Now if she had a cameo in Antz or A Bug’s Life….
Or Men In Black.
She’s also in the Black Mirror episode “Striking Vipers” (along with a couple of other people who you might know from superhero stuff), and the Netflix movie Thunder Force, which is kind of sucky but she’s OK in it.
Yeah. I saw that Black Mirror episode, but I honestly forgot she was in it. Never saw Thunder Force, for obvious reasons. I’m not saying that she hasn’t been in anything else at all. Just that most people only know her from the MCU.
i noticed but it was nothing to freak out over. the cameo wasn’t special enough. she plays a dancer at a bar and got 2 seconds of screen time. at least have her do a twirl or something.
Yeah, I noticed her as well, it was really a blink-and-you-miss-it shot.
Noticed her as well but it’s hard not to, she’s hauntingly beautiful
wait 30 years, she’s gonna go full undead, then she’ll be beautifully haunting
I felt the same way, it was like “Ah, that’s her”, and then that was it
I caught it but was more surprised they had Taika Waititi as Ratchatcher 1.
I knew ahead of time that Taika had a small role, so that wasn’t a surprise to me, but it was still cool.
I thought that was her, and remember thinking “oh, she must be important since I recognize the actor” and then…she just disappeared and I forgot about it.
Exactly. It would have been different if she had a line or actually did something.
Mrs. Slurms: “Hey it’s that actress”
Me: “oh yeah, Pom what’s her face”And that was that. Was I supposed to email James about this?
As my wife were watching the movie together, I said “Hey look it’s Mantis from GoTG 2!!” My wife’s response: “Who?” Me: “The one w/ the antennae” My wife: “Oh, that’s nice”. However, the minute my wife saw Taika, she was like “OMG, I love him!! I cannot wait until the next Thor movie!! Can we watch JoJo Rabbit again after this?”
That was exactly the exchange between me and my brother. But I didn’t feel anyone else in the theater recognized her either.
ditto, she stood out compared to the rest of the dancers.
I’m gonna guess you only tip the dancers with singles, and never go over 2 😉
When I read the headline, I was like “pshhh….I totally caught it”; thinking he was referring to the Sean Gunn cameo. But I missed it; and I guess Sean Gunn technically isn’t even a Guardian. I will now hang my head in shame and surrender my nerd card.
Isn’t that kind of like counting Ted Raimi as “a Spider-Man character”?
Yeah, I noticed, but I wasn’t going to go tweet about it.
I was thinking she looked vaguely familiar and wondered if they were hinting at her character being important later on by lingering on her, but then the rest of the movie happened and I completely forgot about it until now.
But she’s just not being recognized. I’m like, what is going on? I can’t believe it! James Gunn threshold of credulousness is supremely low. No one spotted a relatively low profile actress in the background of a packed club scene in one of your films while in a wig and heavy makeup? The mind boggles. What is going on?
I thought it was super obvious and had zero effect on the movie.
Exactly. It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t worth mentioning. Didn’t even get a line like John Ostrander or Sean Gunn’s Calendar Man, or a recognizable Easter egg character like Natalia Safran’s Kaleidoscope
yeah i’m nearly faceblind and often have trouble telling actors apart (couldn’t tell the two dumbledore actors apart for example) and even *I* was “oh its the messy girl from GOTG”..
In a movie just chock full of cameos she has a cameo. It’s cool but didn’t think it worthy of social media.
‘worthy of social media’ is an interesting turn of phrase, considering the whole point in social media is to share inane bullshit.
Its odd that you and Gunn don’t even mention Michael Rooker who had way more screen time and was also in Guardians, so somehow no one has noticed that either?
You mean Milton? We just had like a three hour conversation about it.
came here for this one.
Rooker’s name was listed in the opening credits which makes his cameo role … obvious. Klementieff’s cameo was uncredited which made recognizing her participation a little more difficult.
Gunn said that “no one noticed there was a Guardian in Suicide Squad” which Is merely what I was responding to. This article also didn’t mention that Rooker was in it, despite mentioning the other MCU/DC crossover actors
Or Sean Gunn, who pulled double duty as Weasel and Calendar Man.Or David Dastmalchian.
And that’s the real deal…
Rooker wasn’t a Guardian, and he’s been part of the cast the whole time.
.
I didn’t check the credits but I’m pretty sure Sebastian was played by the same rat who saved the day in Endgame.
I will never let go of how they completely botched that by not having it be a squirrel.Even if it NEVER paid off, there would have always been the set up there if they wanted it.
actually he used to play animated crabs, very versatile
I did check the credits and it was actually one of the biggest laughs in the movie for me. They credited the live action rats they used and one was named Crisp Ratt
Check the credits. It’s actually the guy who played Star-Lord!They actually named one of the rats Crisp Ratt. I guess Gunn liked that joke so much.
Never mind rats. I want to know what Gunn has against birds in this movie.
Ha, I read that before and just now got it, I’m so slow.
Haha, yes someone else pointed this out but they were greyed and this site is terrible so I couldn’t respond. That is great.
Per the credits, the rat was played by Crisp Ratt.No lie.
I don’t want to sound like an asshole, but is she even that recognizable of a name? She’s done mostly french films up until GotG2, and I’ve never seen the few recognizable titles on her imdb list outside of Marvel. I remember this scene and it doesn’t really jump out as a “hey look at this cameo!” moment- there are other characters and things we’re trying to pay attention to still- so frankly I’m pretty sure no one really cared
everyone is going to know who she is after the next two Mission: Impossible films drop
ew. do people really still turn out to watch those? like, even knowing how shitty Tom Cruise is as a person? I haven’t even considered a M:I movie since 200-something
The series is seven movies deep. Shockingly that means people still watch them.
Eh, you’re not wrong, but last MI movie made almost $800,000,000 at the box office. It’s one of the most reliable money-making franchises not staring a comic book character or Vin Diesel.
The last one was awesome , helped by Swoonworthy Henry Cavill.
Amen. Honestly the supporting cast in most of the MI movies has always been the bigger draw for me than Cruise (that and the action set pieces). If he ever becomes too toxic thanks to Scientology, ages out (since he’s already, you know, 59 years old!) or otherwise retires from the franchise, I think they could easily shift to the movie to an ensemble cast and still be very successful.
My man, you must not be paying attention. The MI movies have only gotten bigger since the original 3. They’ve each exceed expectations and the newest one will likely break a billion when it releases.I don’t like defending Tom Cruise, but outside of his bizarre relationship with Scientology, has he really done anything that shitty? By all accounts, he’s great to work with.
Well, outside of his constant shilling for what is probably one of the most despicable cults of the 20th and 21st centuries, he’s also been accused of mistreating staff and is known for blowing up at people on set over mistakes?
All religions are cults, so in my eyes, all popular figures that work with their preferred religious authorities are shills. IE, that doesn’t bother me much because I expect it. Is Scientology any worse than modern American Christians?I’ve heard the opposite about how he treats staff, though I have heard he’s blown up a few times, but then again, there’s a lot of actors that do.
yes.
You should look into Scientology more, the people who work on his stuff and fix his motorcycle, etc., are basically slaves…and then there are the child sexual abuse rumors regarding the Celebrity Center, etc.
That’s all bad, but is it really worse than say, Christianity/Catholicism? How many priests are outed as sexual predators and child molesters, only for the church to defend them? There’s thousands of stories backing up those claims.I mean, Christians might not enslave people now (that we know of) but let’s not pretend like their hands are clean in that aspect.
I am not sure where you read me saying nice things about christianity? but even by that measure this is more like you are intentionally going to and tithing at the church with the known child-molester cardinal. You can go to the unitarian church and only be tangentially related to that, you can go to a catholic church with no known cases and pretend your parish or diocese wasn’t complicit…this ain’t that. And I say Cardinal, but it is a cult of celebrity and he is their main celebrity so more like actual godhead. Christianity’s hands are not clean, but Tom Cruise has a slave working on one of his motorcycles right now. We are taking George Washington’s name off things…but one of the biggest box office stars in the country is a virtual slaveowner. Live Die Repeat was pretty great tho.
You didn’t. My overall point is that all religions are bad/evil/corrupt/whateverdescriptoryouwanttuse, I’m just using the most common religion in the US as an example. one of the biggest box office stars in the country is a virtual slaveowner.Citation needed.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/02/14/the-apostate-lawrence-wrighthttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4102600/Cruise-partied-Scientology-ship-girl-cleaned-sewage.html
It’s a very long expose, I’ll have to read it when work slows down.
so: you hold it on your tongue and then kind of suck air in through it, that aerates it and really lets you taste the bouquet of all of the screams from entitled Scientology slavers when that article was published ;)And as for the Cruise child sex rumors: aren’t most of these cults ultimately paedo cults?
so: you hold it on your tongue and then kind of suck air in through it, that aerates it and really lets you taste the bouquet of all of the screams from entitled Scientology slavers when that article was published ;)And as for the Cruise child sex rumors: aren’t most of these cults ultimately paedo cults?
Don’t bother. It’s the usual nonsense. Nothing that makes them any worse than Christians, Catholics, Muslims, etc. They’re all garbage and should die in a fiery death. Maybe even take the rest of us along with it, if we’re lucky.
There is lots and lots of information about this that’s readily available
Alright, so find it and cite it.
https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/going-clear
Tom Cruise has literal slaves fixing his cars and shit. No, that’s not worse than pedophile priests but it’s way worse than being a Catholic that doesn’t have slaves or rape kids
Yes, Scientology is worse
It’s not worse than Trump is great Christians.
Pretty sure that one cult with the child raping priests is far worse.
I understand what you are saying, I think the MI films have improved (1 and especially 2 were not that good and do not hold up), and he has his share of well-received films over decades but YOU must not be paying attention if unable to recognize his bottom-of-the-list lineup. Valkyrie, The Mummy, Rock Of Ages, Legend, Knight and Day, and I can name a few more—c’mon, keep up.
I’m not really sure what his box office bombs have to do with this and don’t apply to anything I’ve said. Valkyrie is an okay movie though.
You posed the question whether he has done anything shitty and I answered. Valkyrie is an interesting failure and 10 years from now will hold up even less. Beyond that if you want to pull your head out of the sand, Co$ aside, look at the way he has treated women in his life—Katie had to make The Great Escape to rid herself of him, he completely shuns his own daughter, and look up the name Nazanin Boniadi if you want to read about his appalling treatment of her—broke her down and tossed her aside. If you honestly took three minutes to research there are many examples showing sunshine does not shine out of his ass.
Your answer literally had nothing to do with my question but thanks for moving the goal post for me, I really wanted it in a new spot.
Wow surprised you could see anything clearly with all the Scientolo-sparkles in your eyes, behind those L Ron Hubbard branded sunglasses. Take ‘em off and educate before deflecting everything–that’s a start.
You’re amusingly defensive for someone that misunderstood my comment and responded like a jackass.
I was just alarmed by your…density.
Ha, I’m not dense, you’re just an asshole.
Damn, the Mission Impossible movies date back to the 3rd century?
To their credit, the last three MI movies have been pretty good, plus the last two have had Rebecca Ferguson, who I love seeing on screen and cannot wait until Dune to see her again (I’m skipping “Reminiscence” as it looks like a jumbled mess)
You have taken an admirable and righteous stance — Tom Cruise seems like an awful person.
But the last couple of M:I movies have been recent high watermarks for action cinema, due in no small part to Cruise’s insane dedication and willingness/ability to perform amazing stunts, including hanging on to the outside of a cargo plane as it takes off, performing a HALO jump (captured on IMAX cameras), and actually piloting a helicopter (also captured on IMAX cameras).
Anyway, wish I had your conviction, but that stuff is catnip to me.
By “shitty person” do mean Scientology? Because yeah. But Tom Cruise has on more than one occasion donated a good portion of his paychecks to crewmembers on his movies. It sucks that he’s in a cult, but he’s not an asshole as a person. Big plus also for his calling out fuckers onset not following COVID protection procedures.
Nope, nobody turns up to see them, they continue to spend millions making them just to play them to empty theaters.
I noticed it at the time (Friday night) and hopped out to IMDB and didn’t see her listed there. So I assumed it wasn’t her, even though I thought it was.
we all saw it. nobody gave a shit.didn’t know gunn is such a thirsty mofo
I saw Crisp Ratt in the credits. I figured that counted.
Well, obviously she’s harder to recognise if they CGI out her antennae.
I laughed.
I cried.
Honestly, If I was the WB and Gunn wanted people to see this on a big screen experience safely I would have organized a massive pop up Drive-in Theater experience across the country to see this.Wanna get the theaters involved. Have individual theaters or chains sponsor events, either in their own parking lots or rent out other large outdoor areas for the movie. They supply the food(which is what the theaters make all most of their money on anyways) and get a cut of the tickets, WB gets the rest. Suicide Squad feels like Gunn going back to his Troma roots and those movies always had that grindhouse feel to them, and grindhouse style movies played a lot in drive-ins.
My local theater has a massive six floor parking structure next to it. The top two floors are almost always empty unless it’s peak shopping season. They could absolutely setup a drive in movie experience on the top floor with concessions and portable bathrooms on the second floor.
Next Suicide Squad movie: They have to fight Psycho Ape!
I do not have the desire or time to go through comic book movies frame by frame so I missed this one. Glad some people do so I have goofs to read on IMDB.
In a new interview with , James Gunn says “no one, not a single person” has brought up to him “that there’s a Guardian Of The Galaxy in The Suicide Squad.”
I didn’t realize we were supposed to notify him.Though I’m not surprised more people didn’t recognize her. Mantis has quite a bit of makeup/prosthetic that would obscure her features normally.
Meanwhile, everyone from Tromaville was like “It’s Lloyd!”
Finally someone noticed on this site!I thought I was gonna have to be that guy, and I’m not even a Troma fan TBH…
I do appreciate Gunn’s non-snobby opinion about movie theater vs. TV.
Yeah, this guy has roots in B-movies, so it was nice to hear a not snobby take on how “people won’t understand my vision!”
And what he said about Jaws is a great point.
a good point that also stresses: we need more revival houses!I saw Barry Lyndon in a packed theater on film and among other revelations: it was hilarious.It’s well and good to see them on digital like these Fathom events revivals but it really isn’t the same as seeing an actual filmstrip of Bullitt or Serpico with the soupy coffee film still on it
Reminds me of when I finally saw 2001 on a big screen with a full theater sound system and discovered that, in that context, a) it physically hurts when the monolith emits the shriek and b) several of the cuts back to HAL’s eye are truly chilling.
Yeah. Growing up I didn’t watch Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future in theaters and they’re some of my favorite movies.
I like how accurate his point was too. I wasn’t even alive when Back to the Future was released in theaters, yet it’s one of my favorite films. Herbie the Love Bug was my favorite movie as a kid, yet again, it came out 26 years before I was born. My favorite TV show growing up was Dukes of Hazzard, a show that had it’s finale 7 years before I was born, but thanks to reruns, I was hooked.
I always caught Back to the Future on HBO, and up until last year I had never actually saw the first 15 minutes. It was only then that I learned that Marty McFly had a shitty home life that he actually fixed when he went back in time.
I had a similar thing with Blues Brothers. I always took the ‘mission from God’ thing as more than a little tongue in cheek because I’d never seen the James Brown scene.
I saw BTTF II on TV back in the 80s in Singapore. I really should get a move on with I and III.
That’s why I’m dismissive of “it was before my time” as an excuse for not knowing about some pop-cultural thing.
There’s a fine line between that being an excuse, or being a valid reason. Sometimes certain pop-culture phenomenon’s are very much a “you had to be there”.
“The line” for me is if they stop to think about it or not. If someone doesn’t even look up from what they’re doing (literally of figuratively) and just plays their “yeah, that was before my time” loop as soon as hearing how old something is, I feel relieved of any obligation to be respectful.
it sounds a little like ‘oh we’ve known for weeks advance ticket sales are shit’ damage control, but i still agree with the point. i grew up watching movies panned and scanned with VCR tracking lines and still fell in love.
I literally noticed her right away. He’s talking to dummies.
It’s the lack of antenna I think.
Off topic, but this has been bugging me. I’m sure it’s been discussed ad nauseum, but I’ve missed it, so forgive the noobish question. What is it with Kinja now that people who reply to you that are still in the “greys,” their reply only shows in your notifications, saying “Pending Approval”? Who approves it and how does it get approved? Why is Kinja so shitty? But perhaps that’s a question for another day.
*nods sadly in the greys*
I’d also love an answer to that, because I’ve been posting here for perhaps 15 years, and I’m still in the fucking greys.
If you click on “Pending” at the top of the replies, it sometimes shows the grey replies, but it gets buggier the more comments there are. If you, as an ungreyed commenter star it, it pulls that specific comment out of the greys. Otherwise, I think staff have to approve them to be permanently ungreyed.
Ah, thanks! The “Pending” at the top didn’t look clickable so my brain just ignored it. That makes the experience better for me, but I feel sorry for people stuck in the greys.
We are the permanent underclass of the Kinja boards.
I’ve had issues with AV Club comments sections over the years, from whatever was before Disqus, then Disqus, but Kinja is annoying, so much so that I updated my new burner account name to include the line “Absolutely hates Kinja.” It was bad that my accounts always got deleted when AV switched comments platforms, but Kinja takes the cake with stars not working for months, notifications not showing what comment they reply to, or the edit time limit, and especially “the greys” b.s. Anyway, i am looking forward to this movie.
Yeah, I’m stuck in the grey… not that you’ll see this.
If you go to the article page, click the option to show pending comments, and then star or reply to the comment it will pull the comment out of “pending.” Seems impossible to do when the comment thread is more than a few comments though because the “show more replies” button disappears when I show pending comments, at least on mobile.
Not sure how commenters get ungreyed though, I think staff has to approve you or something.
It’s the same actress but its not the same character from Guardians, she doesn’t have those antenna so the question that should be asked is, Who fucking cares?
“In the same interview, Gunn addressed the movie’s mediocre opening weekend box office debut,”Why go to the theater when it’s free on HBO Max?
“Listen, movies don’t last because they’re seen on the big screen,” he says. “Movies last because they’re seen on television. Jaws isn’t still a classic because people are watching it in theaters. I’ve never seen Jaws in a movie theater. It’s one of my favorite movies.””*Steven Spielberg has unfriended you*
I do really appreciate that opinion. Of the movies I’ve seen that people would consider “greatest of all time” I’d bet I watched all of them on TV and not in a theater.
Tangential perhaps, but this movie fucking rules.
For a split second I also thought the guy towards the end that King Shark chomps on was Taika as well. They even focus on his still alive face in his mouth.
speak for yourself. I did.
But of course she’s not a huge Star and it was a background role, so… meh?
The joke in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 about Drax thinking Mantis is ugly is not funny, but it is funnier if you know what Pom Klementieff actually looks like
That Black Mirror episode she is in messes with your head.
she’s out of this world.
Eh, I noticed but didn’t realize that was supposed to be some special cameo. Just felt like an actor doing thier job. If anything Waititi was the most interesting unexpected casting.
To be fair, Mantis wears more than a little bit of makeup.
I definitely noticed her. Gunn filled out the cast with past collaborators like her and Michael Rooker and Nathan Fillion and Sylvester Stallone.
Lloyd Kaufman was a lot easier to spot.
We all noticed it, but Weasel got more screen time than she did. And was I alone in noticing that I knew instantly when Weasel walked that it had to be Sean Gunn doing the mo-cap? He’s more distinctive than Andy Serkis!
Fuck, Jaws is great in the theater. So is Star Wars. If you have only seen those on tv you don’t understand…
I recognized Pom but despite her striking features she is probably best known to audiences for minor roles in three Marvel films and that awful Melissa McCarthy Netflix superhero comedy. Don’t think fans really know her yet, but critics definitely should.
I mentioned this in another TSS thread, but Josh Brolin is definitely in this as well.
How come no one mentioned that guy from SNL was in it? And that other guy from Firefly? And there was that one guy with an accent? And that other guy from GOTG? No, not that one, the weasel
I haven’t even seen either of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, but I noticed Ms. Klementieff right away in The Suicide Squad…because, well, damn is she sexy.
Also, Michael Rooker, Ondu, appeared for a brief period before his character was offed by Waller.
I actually did notice the character kind of standing out but, it all happened so quickly that, honestly speaking, I just couldn’t be sure in that moment that it was really Mantis or Pom.
How does Michael Rooker get no love? Isn’t he a Guardian of the Galaxy now as Yondu?