James Gunn on Why Sylvester Stallone's King Shark in THE SUICIDE SQUAD Was Harder to Create Than Rocket and Groot

James Gunn is no stranger to making crazy, cool anamorphic characters like Rocket the Raccoon and Groot from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. So he was a clear perfect choice when it came to making this summer’s blockbuster The Suicide Squad, which includes the character King Shark, a human-eating land shark that is being voiced by Sylvester Stallone. But it turned out that taking on King Shark was a whole different beast.

In a recent interview with GamesRadar, Gunn talked about the challenges of making the shark character in comparison to the small mammal, Rocket Raccoon:

“Rocket was hard because it’s difficult taking an animal and turning it into a humanoid shape, but it’s five times more difficult to do that with a shark – it was a very, very painstaking process.”

Not only was it a matter of creating the look of the character, but he was also such a different type of personality, being more of a bad guy. Gunn explained:

“From a character standpoint he’s very different from [Rocket and Groot], because at the end of the day, with the Guardians, we know they’re good. That isn’t true of the Suicide Squad. King Shark is a fish and he eats human beings. He doesn’t have such a mammalian love for people. But he wants to belong and he wants to show that he’s smart. And he’s not.”

It’s been made pretty clear in the trailers that King Shark is not a smart guy. But he is a walking shark that wears shorts, so bad guy or not, he’s endearing. No doubt about that. I can’t wait to see what Gunn has created this time around. The Suicide Squad will arrive in theaters and on HBO Max starting on August 6, 2021. Less than two months away now, are you stoked?