5 things to know about Suicide Squad

1. It has a diverse cast. With the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences getting a lot of flak for its all-white Oscar acting nominations with #OscarsSoWhite trending on Twitter and Spike Lee boycotting the event, it is important to note that the Warner Bros film has Will Smith (as Deadshot), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (as Killer Croc), Jay Hernandez (as El Diablo), Karen Fukahara (as Katana) and the talented Viola Davis (as Amanda Waller).

2. Tom Hardy is bummed that he missed out on the film. Hardy was signed on to play Task Force X member Rick Flagg (now being played by Joel Kinnaman) but the production hassles and schedule overruns on The Revenant meant that Hardy had to drop out of the project.

In an interview to Variety, Hardy said. "I hate fucking losing work. I kept bemoaning that they were losing me significant money on a daily basis. Actually, it was good for my character." In hindsight, it worked out pretty well for Hardy who scored his first Oscar nomination for being Leonardo DiCaprio’s arch nemesis in the revenge drama.

3. Jared Leto took the method acting route to prepare for the Joker. Leto unleashed his inner Marlon Brando/Daniel Day Lewis to essay the part that nabbed Heath Ledger an Oscar in The Dark Knight. In fact the best on-set tales of Suicide Squad revolve around Leto’s behaviour with the cast and crew.

Reportedly the assistant directors had to call him Mr J and Leto didn’t mingle much with the cast which only helped the Task Force X to bond together. Speaking to USA Today, director David Ayer was impressed with Leto’s commitment to Juggalo Joker. "The hairs stand up on the back of your neck," he said of the performance.

Last seen on the big screen in Dallas Buyers Club, could Leto win his second consecutive Oscar?

4. Psychos, killers and freaks save the world. Yes Suicide Squad looks like a riot, but a chunk of its appeal lies in the premise of John Ostrander’s DC comic book: the US government ropes in bad guys and girls to overcome a superbad lot.

Lesser-evil vs evil, bad boys and girls gone good? It’s a refreshing spin to the superhero franchise. Ayer pretty much nailed the problems with the genre when he told Empire: "You know, all these movies are about defeating the evil alien robot from fucking Planet X before it destroys the world with its ticking clock. And who the fuck cares?. But you do this story about struggle and isolation and people who have been shit on that suddenly get thrown this lifeline... that's not so bad... I like to think of this as the Comic Book Movie 2.0." He has our attention.

5. Like Mad Max: Fury Road, it looks like it has crazy written all over it. George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road has already set the benchmark for how you can have fun with a familiar genre, make it relevant to contemporary times and take it to new levels on action front.

Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn looks to be having fun with the crazy-girl act, reminding us of Fury Road’s The Doof Warrior. Here too things blow up and the body count rises, but Ayer knows that it’s the characters that make the story.